ERROR: SYSTEM REBOOT
by Infinity Moment
Summary: "My [[Battle Healing]] skill! It restored my HP just before it hit zero! I can't let Asuna's death be in vain! I have to end this NOW!"-"What the—" Three seconds later, I realized exactly what he meant. Only too late, I saw everything go white. Then everything, all of my memories, started to play in reverse. Abandoned, rewrite out.
1. Chapter 1: Error: System Reboot

Chapter 1

Error: System Reboot

* * *

_It's… over. _I thought as Heathcliff's…no…as _Kayaba Akihiko's_ sword pierced through my chest. I looked up, waiting to see the final 'you are dead' appear in front of me, but nothing happened. I only saw Kayaba's utterly surprised face.

Wondering what took place that so shocked him, I checked my HP bar only to notice an impossible five percent life remaining. _Wait, it just moved up to ten percent. _After a moment of confusion it became clear what happened. _My [[__Battle Healing__]] skill! It restored my HP just before it hit zero! I can't let Asuna's death be in vain! I have to end this NOW!_

Gaining new-found feelings of hope, courage—and rage—I took advantage of the demon's ongoing shock and stabbed him with both my [[Elucidator]] and Asuna's Rapier, [[Lambent Light]], over and over, until I saw his HP drop to zero.

Just before he shattered into countless polygons, Kayaba chuckled and said something that would change my life forever.

"I will keep my word. However, everyone, including you, will all come right back here again in a few seconds."

"What the—" Three seconds later, I realized exactly what he meant. Only too late, I saw everything go white. Then everything, all of my memories, started to play in reverse. I felt myself slowly losing consciousness, succumbing to the black void that appeared just as the rewinding stopped.

Suddenly, I realized just what this might mean. _If time rewound like I think it did, then Asuna should be alive again!_

"Yes, the system overload caused by my boss and master's premature defeat has caused a meltdown of the entire system." A female voice, resounding throughout the void, said. "This…error… caused the fatal flaw of the system to activate, something even Kayaba didn't foresee until far too late."

"You mean that the fatal flaw, just a _system meltdown_, would cause time itself to rewind for the entire world, not just SAO?!" I exclaimed, not believing that what I had just suggested turned out to be true. The voice materialized into a girl, who simply nodded.

"You are the one I have chosen as my champion, so I have four gifts for you. Two of them are a unique set of swords, originally meant to be obtained by the wielder of dual blades on the 90th floor. The next one is unique as well, being that you can use dual wield at the start of this vile death game, though I recommend you keep it a secret, at least until you master it. The last, which is meant for use solely on dual wield skills, is to use skills without the system assist, meaning you can move freely while using dual wield skills. You will only be able to use this once you master dual wield. The same goes for the two ultimate swords. Farewell, my black prince."

As she faded from view, I checked my inventory to find that all of the items she described were actually there, in an extra folder, called [[Gifts from Rinko]].

Then everything went white.

* * *

[[ERROR: SYSTEM REBOOT]]

* * *

"Okay… Goodbye Klein." I said, feeling terrible for not being able to help more. I started to walk away further into the dark alleyway.

"… Kirito! That avatar you had was cute! Totally my type!" he said playfully.

Obviously, he was trying to lighten my spirit, with successful results. I smiled.

"And that rugged look suits you ten times better!" I replied lightly, wondering if I would ever see him again.

I ran down the alleyway, getting halfway to the corner before turning around. Tears started to build up in my eyes when I noticed that he had disappeared, possibly forever. I ran further into the alleyway, not stopping as I reached the outside of the city, and the field beyond. I noticed a [[Frenzy Boar]] in my way, so I charged up a sword skill while running towards it, determined not to let the pitiful mob get in my way.

I unleashed the sword skill, destroying the boar in one hit, not even noticing the level-up window left in my wake. _I'm going to survive. I'm gonna win!_

* * *

**Three Weeks Later**

The [[Dire Wolf]] proved itself a strong, dangerous opponent. It had a tendency to form packs when hit, and I, currently fighting an entire pack of six of them, knew I wouldn't live unless I came up with a strategy or they formed an opening. Three of them only needed one hit from my dual blades, which were currently in the process of leveling up, but that wouldn't help much in my current predicament. I got it to around 450/1000 and that wasn't good enough. Both of my blades, one known as the rare quest reward, [[Anneal Blade]], and the [[Tree Cutter]], the strongest normally acquired sword on the first floor, were refined to +6.

Currently I was barely hanging on to the green color of my HP bar. Each hit I got from a [[Dire Wolf]] eliminated a noticeable amount of my HP, enough that if I received two to three hits from each of them, I would die.

I eyed the mobs closely, noticing that the one with the most HP started slowly moving forward, making a triangle. _Perfect. If I defeat all six, it should put me just past level eleven. Let's test out my new skill, shall we? _I thought.

I started unlocking dual wield skills left and right, so I decided to finally test one of them out. [[Triangle Cut]] would allow me to attack in a straight line, cut through all mobs until there were no more in my line of sight, then turn right at a sixty degree angle, eliminate enemies in that direction, and then turn back to the direction of the first mob I destroyed, and cut back, all in blinding speed.

Activating the aforementioned skill, I dashed towards the left side of the triangle formed by the wolves and executed the skill perfectly. This resulted in sending six [[Dire Wolves]] into the abyss known as the [[Cardinal System]], where they wait to respawn.

I noticed that I had made a miscalculation when judging the amount of EXP I gain, not knowing that using a dual wield skill multiplied the amount of EXP gained by one point five. Thus, I went up to level twelve and gained a bunch of materials needed to upgrade my weapons to the maximum limits, as well as the A-class weapon I tried constantly to retrieve, the [[Dire Claws]].

"Very impressive Ki-Bou! You defeated six [[Dire Wolves]], reached Level 12, and got my Claws! I knew I could count on you!" an all too familiar - not to mention _annoying _- voice chimed out. I sighed.

Argo [[the Rat]]**,** an infamous information broker, and the only one who knew about my dual wield skill.

She found out about it by accident, bumping into me in the [[Forest of Wolves]]. In exchange for keeping quiet about my skills, she asked for one thing: the [[Dire Claws]], a rare drop from [[Dire Wolves]], which has a ninety percent chance of being of the Rare, Epic, Unique, Legendary, or Ancient class. These particular [[Dire Claws]]were of the Unique class, giving her the bonus of [[Movement Speed + 3]].

"Now, will you _please_ not tell anyone? I had enough of a headache getting these to you." I said, hoping to Kayaba that she would keep her word so I could go back.

"Of course! I would never go back on an agreement, _especially _with Ki-Bou." Argo said enthusiastically. "But you're just going to go back in there for more leveling, right? Let me know if you get these in Legendary or Ancient class, and I'll tell you about possible girls in your harem!"

"Whatever, Argo. Let's just friend each other. F-for business purposes!" I said, suddenly finding our surroundings very interesting. _Wait a second, that's—!_

"Oh, Ki-Bou, this is all going so fast—" She started, fortunately not getting to finish before I pushed her out of the way just in time to avoid a two-wolf attack. Unfortunately, I landed on top of her in a compromising position, holding myself over her with my hands on her chest.

"A-a-aaah! I'm sorry Argo!" I exclaimed, hoping against hope that I'd be spared another week of blackmail. I did not want her to have something else on me.

"Baka Ki-Bou, I'd gladly let you do anything to me any time." _It's official. My life is over. My bleeding nose is proof. More importantly, we have twelve angry dire wolves to fend off._

"Argo, what level are you?" I asked impatiently. "That, Ki-Bou, will cost y—"

"ANSWER ME NOW!" I shouted, not leaving room for verbal retaliation.

"Ten." She replied meekly. I _did _out-level her by more than ten in the beta, and she knew that sometimes I took my revenge later on instead of at that moment.

"Good. You take the pack on the left, I'll take the pack on the right! With your new Claws, you should be able to do it!" I ordered fiercely.

And it began. First, I used [[Triangle Cut]], to thin out some wolves unluckily positioned in the perfect formation. Then, I took to doing what Dual Blades do best — launching an extremely fast and overwhelming offense. When three of the mobs surrounded me, I unleashed a devastating attack. By spinning around three times and hitting each mob, I sent a wave of thousands—no, millions—of polygons flying out in all directions. The only problem? That attack left me dizzy and vulnerable to attacks.

Luckily, Argo appeared just in time to defend against an oncoming attack from the accursed mob, then was gone as fast as she appeared, going back to fighting her share of the irritating Dire Wolves.

Finally recovered from the dizziness, I moved on to the next stage of my onslaught. I performed a series of slashes in rapid succession, so fast that it almost reached the system's speed limit.

_Left, right, up, diagonal-up-left, right, down._

Once the first Dire Wolf shattered into countless polygons, I moved on to the next one, and finally to the last one, repeating a similar series of slashes each time. Having finished, I noticed a level-up window, signifying that I reached level thirteen.

I turned and watched with awe as Argo sent the last of her set of dire wolves back into the recesses of the [[Cardinal System]]. A level-up window appeared, upping her level not once but twice, right up to level twelve. To put this in perspective, average players were levels five to six. Beta-testers were level seven, eight at best. Argo and I were both beta-testers, but we took our leveling a step further than necessary. We didn't whittle away at mobs at our level or lower. No, we took it as high as we could, going up to mobs at least two levels higher. Of course, the first floor mobs plateaued at the [[Dire Wolf]], at level ten, the same level as the boss.

"Argo, great job." I said with quiet enthusiasm, giving her a thumbs up. _Those Claws definitely suit her well. They prioritize speed, and with enough upgrades, they become the strongest and fastest Claws up until the fifth floor._

"Thanks Ki—huh? Who's that?" Argo inquired curiously. I turned around to see a girl with long black hair shining in the moonlight, her large bust covered by light armor, and her stunning emerald eyes staring straight into mine, as if piercing my very soul. Her armor consisted of a light breastplate, a pouch strapped around her waist (most likely containing throwing picks), lightweight boots that came up to her mid-calf, and half a set of [[Dire Claws]]on her left hand. As she stood up, her hair cascaded down to her knees, shimmering beautifully under the system-simulated stars.

"Kamiko…?" I said, remembering her claim that she used her actual appearance in the beta-test. She still looked stunningly beautiful as always. The girl in question just stared at me, eyes boring deep into my soul, before stammering, "Ki-Kiri-kun…?"

Tears started building up in her eyes, and just like that she vanished, leaving said tears in her wake.

"Wait, Kamiko! I'm sorry! It's not your—huh, it's no use." I said sadly, feeling sorry for her, still blaming it all on herself.

"Kamiko, Kamiko, Kamiko… where have I heard that name before? WAIT A SECOND! Was that Kamiko [[the Queen of Claws]] from the beta!? The one who constantly showed her affections for my dear Ki-Bou!?" Argo asked, flabbergasted.

"Y-yea, but I'm not yours, Argo." I said, blushing from remembering Kamiko's overly-nice attitude towards me up until the incident, everything suddenly clicking into place quite nicely.

"Baka Ki-Bou, you really didn't notice that she loved you?" W_ell, at least she didn't treat my blushing _that _way._

"That's right! I was about to warn her about where she ran off to! She went towards the den of the [[Alpha Dire Wolf]]! We have to go save her!" I exclaimed frantically. I could _never_ live with myself if I let my best friend from the beta die!

"Let's go, Ki-Bou!" she said while sending me an invite to join her party. I quickly accepted, and we set off. Dashing through the [[Forest of Wolves]], I could only keep up with Argo because of the speed boost I got from dual blades. We were still a ways away when Argo looked at me and said slyly, "Ki-Bou may have to use his love charm again!"

"WHAT!? I don't have—*sigh*, whatever. What do you mean, anyway?" I asked, annoyed. Argo couldn't make any less sense if she tried. Then it clicked. "You don't mean—"

"Yup, she saw your dual wield skill! You'll have to make use of your effeminate love charm!" she said giddily, probably hoping to see some sort of love hypnosis skill or something.

"I am not effeminate! Whoa!" I said, just as a large tree came into view right in front of me. Acting on impulse, I sheathed my right sword, and then used my right hand to swing myself around the tree, kicking off of it to catch up to Argo, who got a few meters ahead of me while I evaded the tree.

"You're right though, I do have to do _something _to make her keep my dual wield a secret. And _no,_I will not use my so-called 'love charm'." I said contemplatively, wondering what I could do to make her willingly keep it a secret. I don't want to force her, especially now that we've yet to be friends in the official game. Hopefully she would accept my friend invite this time too.

Finally reaching the den of the field boss, the [[Alpha Dire Wolf]], we found Kamiko on the ground, struggling to stand up. Standing over her in its [[Werewolf Form]] at over three meters tall. With two of its four health bars depleted, the Alpha certainly made for a menacing sight. Without thinking, I drew my [[Anneal Blade]] and charged at the horrid beast.

"WRAAAHH! I'll KILL you!" I screamed angrily at the beast, charging at it while charging my [[Chain Skill]], which allowed me to use multiple sword skills in rapid succession. I could use one _or _two blades for as long as I want, in exchange for the combined cool-down time of all of the skills I used once I finished, plus a 25% cut in defense for five seconds.

I opened with a [[Sonic Leap]], coming back down and continuing with a [[Slant]], jumping back and perfectly executing a [[Crooked Fang]], and ending it with a [[Blink Cut]] - a dual wield skill I recently learned. Unfortunately for me, [[Blink Cut]]has a handicap that the field boss unwittingly exploited.

When I use [[Blink Cut]], I move blindingly fast, but I can only move in a straight line. When my blades make contact with the target's body while using the skill, my own body phases through the target while my blades cut through it. If the target points a sword or other blade in my direction, I still execute the skill, but the mob's blade cuts through me and deals immense damage.

The [[Alpha Dire Wolf]] exploded into polygons, leaving nothing behind but a message saying that I got the [[Last Attack Bonus]]. I stood a few meters behind where the field boss had been, with giant claw marks all over the left side of my body - just barely missing my heart in some cases. My HP in the red, a measly five points out of eight hundred eighty five, did not frighten me for some strange reason, but made me feel oddly satisfied. I had saved Kamiko.

Everything faded into black.

**A/N: So, how'd you like it? Love it? Hate it? I'd love to see reviews to tell me if there's anything wrong. Also, PLEASE don't hate on me for having OCs, I need just a tiny amount for the plot to proceed smoothly. And trust me, there ****_will _****be KiritoxAsuna in later chapters, I just need a little time to get the trusty old S.S. Kirisuna into seaworthy condition.**

**If you have constructive criticism for me, go ahead. I'll definitely listen to your ideas, and try to change my story accordingly.**

**I'm planning on having a harem (****_outdated, there will be no harem. Sorry to those of you looking forward to a rewrite with that included_****) going in the future, but for a while, Kirito gets no one, completely by choice I might add. Yes, Kirito will most likely be solo for quite some time, so sorry to anyone who wanted a party or a guild immediately. (****_Again, outdated. After Cirdan, though, he goes solo for a while. That doesn't mean that he doesn't meet up with some main characters periodically though._****)**

**Please keep in mind that this is my first fanfic (though it is being rewritten), so it may be a little rough around the edges.**

**_Rewriting edit:_**

**_I kept most of the stuff from the original first chapter, just taking out the crystals, 'cause a few people complained about that being too similar to another fic which I myself hadn't started reading until a few days ago. I also replaced some passive writing and weakened the Chain skill, for those of you who didn't notice._**

**May happiness be with you,**

**OMG**

**Original Skill Information:**

**Skill Name: **Crooked Fang

**Color: **Orange

**Weapon Type: **One-handed Swords

**Description: **The user strikes their target with a two-handed strike, dealing damage based on the level difference between the user and the target.

**Number of Hits: **1 Hit

**Cooldown/Post-Skill Effect:** Deals 50% more damage if the target is 3 or more levels below the user, deals 25% more damage if the target is 1 or 2 levels lower, deals normal damage if the target is at the same level, deals 10% less damage for every level the target is above the user.  
**Notes:** This skill is very effective for farming lower-level mobs for rare drops or Col.


	2. Chapter 2: Kirito Overloaded

**Chapter two**

**Error: Kirito Overdrive**

* * *

When I woke up, seeing the worried expressions of two beautiful girls, one of whom had tears in her emerald eyes, I felt awful.

I got up, eyeing the message a few meters away. _[[__Last attack bonus__]]? What's that about—ugh! _I looked down, noting the marks, still red on my left side, seemingly made from huge claws. Then it clicked.

"Baka Kiri-kun! Why? Why did you save me again?!" Kamiko yelled, forcing an expensive potion's liquids down my throat, revitalizing my HP back to full. Her tear-filled eyes struck a chord in my soul. I felt horrible for upsetting her, especially now that I knew of her secret affections for me.

"Again? But aren't you the [[Queen of Claws]]? The second strongest player from the beta by far?" Argo questioned Kamiko.

"That's just it, though, Argo. I _was_ the second strongest by far, but by far went both ways. I could never match Kiri-kun's strength when we were clearing floors together, and every time we fought a boss or field boss, he would end up saving me. It got so _frustrating_. I felt so _weak_. So I tried to get stronger, to reach his level, but no matter how hard I tried, he was always a few steps ahead of me. Even when I reached the same level as him in the game, his fighting ability far surpassed mine," She finished, tearing up again.

"Hey now, I didn't save you all the time because I thought you were weak. I saved you all the time because you were, and still are, very important to me." I said comfortingly, pulling her into a hug and whispering the last part into her ear.

"Mou, Kiri-kun, you're making me do it again," She said, smiling. I wiped away her tears and said, "Now, let's see what that LA bonus is!"

"Is it claws? I hope it's claws!" Argo said happily, eager to see the powerful [[Wolf King Claws]] from the beta, assuming the claws were what dropped.

I looked at the Congratulations Window, touched the accept bonus button, only to be shocked to find that two items were there. "[[Wolf King Claws (Ancient)]] and [[Wolf King Einshander (Unique).]] I got a blade to replace [[Tree Cutter]]!" I exclaimed, ecstatic.

"I get the claws, right, Ki-Bou?" Argo happily said in a sing-song voice. She had stars in her eyes, and I felt kinda bad for her, being so desperate.

I materialized the claws in my hand, using the 'make into object' option, and said, "Here, catch," throwing them to Kamiko. "You can have those on two conditions. One, never tell anyone about my dual blades skill. Two, accept this." I said, pulling up a window and sending a friend request, doing my best to ignore Argo's dramatic wail.

"Kiri-kun, thank you so much! I promise that I'll get stronger so that you won't have to save me anymore, and so that I'll finally be able to walk beside you as your equal," she exclaimed. She then equipped the claws, walked over to me, and pressed her lips against my cheek, saying, "_Arigatou, sayonara," _before she left without me even noticing.

"Aw, is our protagonist love-struck? I'm jealous!" Argo teased.

I didn't notice, too distracted by Kamiko's choice of words to say goodbye.

_"Arigatou, sayonara." Where did I hear that…? NO! NOT AGAIN! _"SACHI!"

I screamed the name that appeared with a dying face, unwilling to let that moment happen again. Then, the moment vanished from my consciousness just as quickly as it came.

"Sachi? Who's that? Is she one of the girls you seduced with your love charm?" Argo asked teasingly. Then her expression hardened. "No, seriously, are you okay? That scream seemed totally frantic, as if someone's life was on the line."

"I-it's nothing, I just zoned out there for a second." I said tiredly, just wanting to go home and take a rest. Home, meaning the house I bought as a quest reward.

"Great, then let's go do some more lev—"

"Teleport: [[Zweistadt]]!" I exclaimed, using a [[Teleport Crystal]] to get away from Argo and her inevitable teasing, should I lose a significant amount of health…or Kami-sama forbid she got bored.

* * *

Arriving in town, I had to walk a little ways away, out to the countryside and to my house, so I decided to take a leisurely walk through the streets.

At this time of night they were relatively empty, save for the occasional player walking to an inn or the very few people going out of the city, presumably beta-testers knowing how to survive at night. _Is that… Silica?_

"Oi, Silica! How are you?" I asked, walking over to meet her. Being the only child I knew in this game who could hold her own against a [[**Dire Wolf**]], we made good friends. If not for her size, her long light brown hair tied into large pigtails would make her relatively easy to spot, compared to the bland appearances of most of the players.

"Kirito-san! I'm doing well, thank you. I'm a little tired, but I'm not complaining. How are you faring? I guess not much better than I, what with your tattered clothes," She said, smiling innocently. "By the way, why is there lipstick on your cheek?"

"W-what the? How did that..?" _Oh, right, that. Well, at least it's just Silica who saw it, _I thought while rubbing my right cheek.

"Mou, Kirito-san, you could've at least told me you had a girlfriend," Silica said flatly, as if too annoyed to show emotion. _Why would that be?_

"Well, whatever! Who am I to ask about your personal life?" she said cheerily, leaving me to try to defend my case.

"Wait, Silica! It's not like that! I just met a really close friend from the outside world, that's all that happened," I said frantically.

I hoped my reputation didn't get shattered for this, despite the little white lie I told her as a way to defend myself. It's true that we knew each other, but only from our beta-testing days.

"Oh, okay, sorry about that, Kirito-san. I kind of overreacted," Silica said apologetically, her eyes pleading to me for forgiveness. I felt bad for unwittingly offending her in some way.

"It's okay, Silica… Ah! I've got to get home! My sleep eagerly awaits me!" I said while running off.

* * *

_The field too quiet for a time like this. It's eleven o'clock, and there are no mobs in sight. Strange._ I thought, very confused, until I saw what looked to be a skilled high-level cloaked player, fighting five mid-level mobs. She had already trained her [[One Handed Sword]] skill enough to use a rapier, and handled it gracefully while delivering a fair amount of damage with her skills.

"Hey, that's pretty impressive, congrats." I said after seeing the cloaked figure defeat the last mob in sight. "You got a little shaky towards the end, so I recommend you put some stat points into Constitution, or CON. Other than that, you were amazing!" I said, congratulating the player.

"What does it matter? I defeated it, and I got the EXP from it, and that's all that matters, right?" a beautiful voice said, completely void of emotion. _Ah, so she must be one of the players who took it the hardest. Still, at least she isn't being suicidal._

"I disagree, but we'll save that topic for later. Now, if you don't mind me asking, what level are you?" I tried to be casual, inwardly seething that she didn't even care about her own personal safety.

"Level nine," She said flatly, as if she didn't even care that she probably had the highest level, barring Argo, Kamiko, and I, in the game.

"What?! Then you should be able to one-hit-kill those mobs. They're only level five. How are you using your [[stat points]]?" I asked incredulously. Then suspicion hit.

"…Are you even using your stat points?"

"Are you doubting my strength? But no, I've been wondering how to do that," She replied coldly.

"No wonder. All right, I'm going to show you only once, okay? But first, let's return to my house and get something to eat. I'm guessing you're hungry, right?" I said, hoping that she'd accept. After all, I wanted to save as many lives as possible in this death game._ Even though I…_

"Okay, but answer me this. Why are you helping me? What does it matter to you?" the cloaked girl asked sadly.

"Because I care. I care for you, my friends, and everyone else still alive in this game. If I could, I would revive the people in this game somehow, because I care about them just as much. Now, let's go to my place and get some food, and then we'll talk about making you a little stronger." I spoke with conviction, determined to clear this game as soon as possible so that no more players have to die in vain.

"Okay."

* * *

Though the walk back to my house had passed by relatively uneventfully, a few mobs still spawned, and were quickly dispatched by me. Once we got to the house, however, the cloaked girl gasped at the sight before her, as if she was facing a boss all by herself.

The house's huge exterior had a Roman style, with pillars on every corner, and walls covered with a marble layer on the outside. As we walked in, she merely stood there, seemingly shocked, though I couldn't see her face due to the hood of her cloak. The interior had a fountain in the middle of a very big living room, which sadly had no furniture as I only had enough money to buy the house and what came with it. The living room had three spiral staircases, the first, second, and third leading to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, respectively.

"Now, why don't you come up to the kitchen, and we'll talk there?" I inquired. I had no idea why I acted so kind to this girl, but something about her just… drew me in.

We walked up the staircase to the left, which led to the kitchen. We sat down in the chairs opposite each other, neither of us saying anything for a good fifteen seconds. I finally took the initiative to speak after it became clear that she would stay irritatingly silent.

"So, let's get down to our first order of business, shall we? I'm going to teach you how to invest stat points, to make you stronger. You're level nine, and players get three stat points every time they level up, so you should have twenty four stat points. Now, open your menu, and click on stats. You see the abbreviations with numbers next to them, there in the lower center of the screen?" I asked, pausing after each step to let her do what I instructed.

"STR13, DEX24, and CON11?" she asked uncertainly, sounding unbelievably cute when matched with her voice.

"Yeah. Now see the Add Button to the right of those? Touch that, and then plus signs will appear next to each abbreviation. Hit a plus sign to increase that stat's number by one. I recommend doing the hybrid build, which for you your rapier is +2 DEX, and +1 CONevery time you level up. That means that this time you should put +16 into DEX, and put +8 into CON. When you're done, hit the Apply Button, which is where the Add Button used to be. Go ahead, try it." I said nonchalantly, hoping that she would understand well enough to do it successfully.

Once I noticed her execute it perfectly on the first try, I felt thoroughly impressed. "Good job."

"Really? It wasn't that hard," she said, but I could sense a distinct amount of both pride and embarrassment. It almost made me want to laugh, but it did manage to make me smile like an idiot.

"Now that that's over, what say we get some food? I'm starving!" I said to cover up my reason for my moronic smile. But even though I used that particular line as a cover up, I couldn't deny my starvation. My growling stomach agreed with me.

"Hahaha. But really, you don't have to—" "But I do. You're the guest of honor, and that means when you're hungry, you eat. Don't tell me you're not hungry, because I can easily tell that you are," I said kindly.

"Really? Thank you," she said, and I could somehow feel her smiling under her hood.

"It's no problem. Actually, someone on my friends list constantly sends me food that his friend cooks, and I'm having a hard time keeping up with it all, so you'll be doing me a favor," I said calmly, hoping she didn't see the cover-up I'd just made. I've actually been practicing my [[Cooking Skill]] because I get so many raw ingredients from mobs. I'd gotten it to about one hundred - nothing to brag about, but still not bad.

_I finally get to test out my cooking on someone. Let's hope I've done well enough to please her. _I blinked. _Wait a second, why do I care?_

About an hour later, we were both stuffed. I had been carefully watching her body language to see if she liked it, and I truly couldn't tell.

"You're a good cook. Thanks," the cloaked figure said, muttering the last part out of embarrassment.

"Beats what you can get from shops and mob drops, doesn't it? Wait a second, how the heck did you know it was me? I know for sure I didn't tell you," I said warily. I didn't know how she did it, but she caught on to my little lie.

"You were watching me the entire time with a nervous expression, as if you were scared of my opinion on the food. You had absolutely no need to be, though. *Yawn* Do you mind if I stay here tonight? I have no money to pay for another night at the inn, and I'm really tired after that great meal," she said nervously, as if afraid that I would kick her out.

"No, I don't mind at all. There's just one problem" I said nervously, blushing slightly. This wasn't going to be easy to say at all.

"What's the problem? Oh, wait. Do you really mean that…?" she started, embarrassed.

"Y-yeah… there's only one bed, and I didn't have enough money to buy any other furniture, so if you want to stay here, we'll have to share the bed. Ah-ah don't worry though, the bed's really big, so we probably won't end up touching each other or doing anything else." I said carefully, afraid of possibly being stabbed in an anti-pervert rage.

"O-okay, but at least tell me your name," she said quietly, starting to manipulate her equipment. I absolutely, positively _had _to stop her.

"N-no no no, you've got it wrong! I won't do anything! I just wanted to warn you that I only have one bed," I said, effectively stopping her from unequipping her clothes. "My name's Kirito, by the way."

"Oh, okay… Kirito. B-by the way, c-could I please call you Kirito-kun…? I'm sorry, I just met you…"

"Sure, why not, as long as you don't call me just 'guy', 'boy', or a foul name, I'm fine with it," I yawned. "I'm tired, what say we go to bed?"

We went down the stairs, then walked to the spiral staircase on the far right and went up it. I led her a short way down a hallway and we entered the only room at the end of it. I led her through the darkness to the bed, at which I pulled down the covers, allowing her to get in. I then walked around to the other side of the bed and, my clothes still on, slipped into the other side of the covers.

"Just so we're clear, I won't do anything, okay? Now, goodnight." I said gently, quickly quieting myself to allow her to go to sleep peacefully.

Three hours later, I still couldn't fall asleep. Busy thinking about the previous night's events, I noticed the time. _Great, two in the morning. But wow, last night was crazy. So many strange things happened that it's really hard to believe that this isn't all just a big dream. I grew to level thirteen, met up with my best friend from the beta, saved her from a field boss, teleported to town, met up with Silica, and then I even let a complete stranger stay in my house, just because she had potential!_

_Speaking of her, she's still wearing that cloak, isn't she? I wonder what her face looks like under that hood _I thought, moving my hand up to remove the hood of her cloak, before quickly deciding against it and swiftly retracting my shaking hand. _No! I told her I wouldn't do anything! I can't break her trust. _I mentally scolded myself.

With that, I felt my body grow tired, the previous day's events finally catching up with me. My eyes grew heavy and I said one last thing to myself before I let myself drift off to sleep.

_"Wait for me, Sugu. I'll come back to the real world, and then I'll be nicer. Nothing will get in my way. I'll clear this game for you, Suguha."_

* * *

**A/N: Sooo, how'd you like the second chapter of my story? Love it? Hate it? Well, review and tell me what you think. Your kind reviews feed the hungry homeless plot bunnies that I take in from time to time, so please, have the kindness to give those helpless starving plot bunnies something to quell their appetites.**

**I know that I contradicted myself when I said he wouldn't get into a party or guild immediately, seeing as he partied with Argo. As I see it though, when he teleported by himself to the town I dubbed Zweistadt, it disbanded the party.**

**I really pushed it up to that T-rating, didn't I? Well, I needed some kind of Kirsuna fanservice that wouldn't mess up the plot outline I have.**

**Speaking of the plot, I'm completely open to suggestions concerning things that aren't part of the outline I have planned. Send me an idea, and I'll ****_gladly _****try to incorporate it into the story.**

**By the way, you can check my profile to see how close I am to finishing the next chapter of this story.**

**Constructive criticism will be taken seriously, and flamers will be ignored.**

**May happiness be with you,**

**OMG**

**PS: Sorry, I guess I forgot to explain some plot holes. See, the beginning is set so that the entire SAO world is reset. The reason that he remembered everything is that in the void, his memories were preserved, but then when the world got completely reset, the void (which contained his memories) was forced into his subconscious.**

**Now, onto another plot hole. Time did indeed rewind for the entire world, and because of that, and his gifts, the timeline will be severely altered. And because of this, some of the characters will seem out of character for a while. Hopefully I'll get the characters back on track soon enough.**


	3. Chapter 3: Beta Outdated

Chapter Three

Error: Beta Outdated

I woke up to find a pair of arms around my waist, and a head buried in my shoulder from behind.

_Kamiko…? Oh, right, this isn't the beta, _I thought sadly, remembering my predicament.

It's been one month since the beginning of SAO, and so far, two thousand have died. I've been helping the player beside me level up for the last week, so I've not had time to look for the boss room up in the [[Kobold Labyrinth]].

This player, who still hasn't disclosed her name yet, has leveled up to nineteen with relative ease because of her incredible speed. I, on the other hand, have been fighting nothing but field and quest bosses during my spare time, slowly pushing up to level twenty two.

I figured out that the [[Alpha Dire Wolf]], while being the hardest field boss to defeat on the first floor, always dropped a special weapon matching the blade- or other weapon- type that defeated it. Because of this, I made my cloaked friend fight it to get the best rapier drop for the whole floor; the [[Alpha Rapier]]. Though it did sometimes drop second bonuses, like with the claws I gave to Kamiko.

I refuse to comment on any extra drops we may or may not have sold to other players.

Today was different than any other day though; the players were finally having a meeting on how to defeat the first floor boss.

I planned, prior to this gathering to get the both of us to upgrade our equipment to the fullest level at Lizbeth's blacksmith stand.

Liz possessed the highest upgrade success rate of any player blacksmith or even NPC blacksmith I knew. Currently, her ninety seven percent success rate made her a sought-after player for upgrades, regardless of her higher prices. While there, I would get both my [[Anneal Blade]] and my [[Wolf King Einshander]] upgraded to +8.

I had to get up, so I turned around in bed and nudged my companion softly with my pinky finger, saying, "It's great that you've opened up to me enough to put your arms around me, but we need to get up. It's already seven, and we've got a full day ahead of us."

"Nnn, wha…?" she started sleepily.

_Wow, she must still be really tired from us staying up late last night to get her new rapier._

"Owa! I—I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was doing! I didn't mean to—"

I found myself smiling.

"Relax, I don't mind that sort of thing. Actually, you've been doing that all week, I just never said anything when I got up before you to make our breakfast," I said kindly and truthfully. Both Sugu (before my revelation) and Kamiko did that sort of thing when they couldn't sleep, so I was used to it.

"A-all week? I-I'm so sorry, Kirito-kun! I didn't—" She stuttered out, face flaming.

"Don't worry, it's fine. Like I said, I don't mind. Actually, I'm used to it. Whenever my sister had nightmares, she would always come to my room to find comfort. Whoops, I broke the unspoken rule, huh. Sorry about that." I said ruefully. The unspoken rule is that you should never talk about your life outside of SAO.

"No, it's nice to know you trust me enough to tell me that. You sound like a very nice person," she said brightly.

"Well, now that's settled, why don't we head out to the shopping district of [[Zweistadt]]?"

The giant shopping district in the second village, spanning at least half of the entire town, looked intimidating, to say the least. Hundreds of people hurrying about, going on with their business. From memory, I found my way to the third smith shop on the left entering the district from the east, the direction my house is in.

"Welcome to Lizbeth's blacksmith shop, how can I help you?" The perpetually cheerful Liz greeted, "Oh, Kirito, how's it going? Who's your new guy friend?"

"Actually, I'm a girl. And I'm certainly not his guy or girlfriend," She said haughtily.

"Remember, I'm the one who's paying for all of your equipment upgrades, so be nicer than that," I said matter-of-factly, causing her to lower her head.

"Come on, your posture is cuter when you're upbeat, so cheer up 'kay?" I said gently. I could sense her blushing through her cloak. I turned to Lizbeth and said, "Now, Liz, I want you to do a full upgrade on all of our equipment, including her weapon. Don't worry about the money, I've definitely got enough."

An hour later, we were walking towards where the boss meeting would be taking place. All of our equipment, including her new rapier, had been fully upgraded without a hitch, and I still had a bunch of money left over from all of the quests I had completed.

The streets befitted the town's design, being made of white bricks that interlocked in a way that pleased the eye. The buildings were made of the same kind of brick but were in various other colors, some being tan, red, etc. Some were even a strange black color, looking strangely ominous and out of place in a town like that.

"Well, this seems to be it," I said nervously, looking at all of the players already there, even though we were all thirty minutes early. "I had no idea that this many players had the will to risk their lives to fight the first boss. Well, I guess that's just the potential willpower of the human spirit."

"Or the potential naïveté," My hooded friend said cynically, "They have no idea what they're getting into."

"Hey, what'd I tell you about that negativity? They've probably been training just as hard as we are, just on a lot lower-level mobs. What do you think you were like when I found you?" I said harshly, immediately regretting it after I saw her trembling. She seemed to be so fragile when I got angry at her like that.

"Don't worry, I won't abandon you. I'll be there to comfort you when you're hurt, whether you like it or not, 'cause you're my friend," I said, pulling the fragile girl into a warm embrace. At first, she stiffened, but then she gradually relaxed into the hug.

"My, my, what do we have here? I sure hope that it's a girl under that cloak!" Argo said teasingly.

_Of all the people to see this, it just _had _to be that annoying girl._

Sensing that my friend still needed comfort, I kept her in the embrace. "Yeah, she's a girl, but you shouldn't joke like that, Argo. It's not funny, at least not to me," I said firmly but quietly.

The girl sniffed lightly, "I'm okay now. You can let me go so she'll stop teasing you."

"Are you sure?" I asked uncertainly, pulling her hood up slightly, not enough to see anything but her cheeks and mouth, and wiped some stray tears away that had remained on her face. The girl nodded, signaling that she would be fine on her own.

Mind if I ask what kind of situation I just walked in on? I'd _love _to hear about this," teased Argo. I definitely couldn't tell her, or she would spread the news, and people would make fun of the girl next to me for being fragile. Argo _was _an information broker, after all.

"I've got a pair of [[Wolf King's Claws (Legendary)]] with your name on it if you don't tell anyone that this happened," I said, trying to defend my cloaked friend's dignity. As I said this, I materialized and waved around the second drop I got the last time I faced off against the alpha dire wolf.

"Do I at least get an explanation from my darling Ki-Bou?" When Argo said the word 'darling,' I felt my other friend tense up, her shoulder still touching mine. _Is she still upset, or could it be her perception of my relationship with Argo making her think I would leave her?_

"No, Argo. And I'm not your darling. People will get the wrong impressions about us if you talk like that. Now, do you accept my bargain?" I said, putting my arm around the girl to my right to quell her uneasiness.

"Sure, but can I at least get your levels?" Argo begrudgingly accepted my proposal.

"Okay… twenty one for me, and seventeen for her, though in skill, we're almost even." I said matter-of-factly, "And those claws are fully upgraded, so you owe me the levels of you and Kamiko."

Argo sighed, "Fine. I'm level twenty, and Kamiko is level twenty one, just like you. And by the way, when you said you two were even, you didn't take your _secret _into account, did you? Trust me, girly, this man is on a whole other level," Argo giggled giddily at the end. _It's a pity that she's so cute, 'cause if she didn't tease me so much, I could get into her._

"Thanks, Argo. By any chance, would you two be joining us in the boss fight? You'd be valuable assets to our raid group," I inquired hopefully.

"Nope, Kamiko and I are having a girls' night out to talk about boys" she said teasingly.

"AACHOO! Hey, what the heck's so funny?" I asked angrily when I saw Argo burst out laughing.

"Hehe, it's nothing. Well I'll be seeing ya, it looks like the meeting's about to start. Ja ne!"

The meeting area, composed of a group of large stairs set up in a semicircle surrounding a platform at the bottom, made a decent place for a boss strategy session. There were an immense amount of people at the front of the stairs, but very few in the back, so we took a seat in the back left.

Suddenly, a man with long, curly blue hair approached the platform from behind, starting to speak when he got to the center, saying, "Hello, thank you for showing up today. My name is Diabel. I'd like to consider my job in this game as a knight," He said loudly, putting a fist to his chest.

Wait...

_Where have I heard this before?_

At this a lot of people laughed.

"There's no job system in this game."

"That's a good joke."

"Is this meeting a joke too?"

_I've heard all of this before!_

"Come on, you should take this seriously," Diabel began speaking with a low, serious voice, "Today, our party found the boss's lair at the top of the dungeon tower, known as the [[Kobold Labyrinth]]."

Gasps and several exclamations of "Really?" came from the sitting players.

"We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the [[Town of Beginnings]] that it _is _possible to beat this death game!" Diabel continued, "Each of you here bears this duty! What do you say?"

At first, the only responses were nervous noises, but then more and more nods filled the arena-like stairs. Then, someone started clapping, and then another, and another until a whistle could be heard coming from one of the players. I just sat there, next to my cloaked friend, smiling.

"All right, then let's get started and come up with a plan. First, we'll divide into parties of six," Diabel said, making me silently gasp in horror. "An ordinary party has no chance against a floor boss, so we'll need to form a raid group, made up of multiple parties."

I looked on nervously as all the people around me started to form parties with their friends.

I swallowed my anxiety and told my cloak-veiled friend, "You should party up with another group, so you'll be safer. I'll be fine, don't worry about me."

"No, I want to party with you, b-because… b-because…" Unable to finish for some reason, she just seemed to shut off.

I tried to gently get the information out of her.

"Because…?"

"Because you're my treasured friend" she uttered meekly.

"There now, was that so hard? I care a lot about you, too. If I didn't, would I have taken you in?" I gently said, putting my arm around her while opening up my window and inviting her to party with me, which she immediately accepted.

When her HP bar appeared under my own in the top left corner of my vision, I immediately looked at her name, which I had been curious about all week. _Asuna…? I've heard that somewhere before! It seemed like a very important name back then, what are the odds she'd be here now?_

"Okay, have you all formed your parties?" Diabel inquired. Once everyone seemed set, he continued. "Well then—"

"Wait up a sec!" A voice called from the top of the stairs. Everyone's eyes turned towards the speaker.

His orange hair resembled a cactus, and a sneer adorned his lips. He jumped down the stairs a few steps at a time until he reached the stage-like platform, turned around on his heels and called out, "My name's Kibaou. I just wanna say somethin' before we take this thing on. Some of you need to apologize to the thousands who've died so far!"

Various voices laced with suspicion started to mumble to their party members, unsure of what this cactus-headed man meant.

"Kibaou-san, are you referring to the beta-testers?" Diabel inquired calmly.

"Of course I am! The day this stupid death game started, the testers ditched all the newbies, leaving us all to die! They took all the good grinding spots and easy quests for themselves so only they could get stronger, and then they just ignored the rest of us!" Kibaou said angrily, just itching to continue his rant.

"I have no doubt that someone here was in the beta! They should get down on their knees and apologize, and give up all of the money and items they've saved up," He said, making me start to sweat. "If they don't, we can't trust them to protect us as party members, and they can't trust us either!"

My eyes narrowed, and I started to sweat even more as an internal war went on in my head, tow halves debating on whether I should comply. Normally, I wouldn't even consider it, but the past week's ordeals had made me start to question that.

_What would happen if Asuna found out I'm a beta-tester? How would she react? Would she still consider me a friend?_

"May I speak?" an absurdly tall and muscular dark skinned man asked politely.

_His deep voice sounds somewhat intimidating_. I absentmindedly thought as I watched him walk down from the seventh stair, down to the platform where the rude cactus-haired man stood haughtily. _And there's no way he's even remotely Japanese._

"My name is Agil. I want to make sure I understood you correctly. Are you saying, Kibaou-san, that all of the players' deaths so far were because the beta-testers didn't _babysit them_? And that they should take responsibility, apologize, and provide compensation? Am I correct?" Agil inquired, outwardly calm…but I could somehow sense his irritation just below the surface.

"Y-yeah." Kibaou replied nervously. I felt a sneer of my own forming.

_Hah! Even an annoying tough-guy-wannabe idiot like this cactus-head is scared of him!_

"You have this Guide Book, don't you? It was provided for free at any item store," Agil said, displaying the nondescript book for everyone to see.

"Of course I did… Who cares?" Kibaou replied haughtily.

That was when the penny dropped. I realized Agil's point a moment before he said it out loud.

"This guide was compiled from information given by the beta testers."

Gasps went up through the meeting area, with a few "Wait, really?" tossed around.

Kibaou grunted in annoyance, before Agil turned around to face the crowd.

"Listen. Everyone had equal access to this information, and yet still thousands died. I thought the topic of discussion here was about what we learned from their deaths, and how that knowledge could help us defeat the boss."

I silently sighed in relief, saved by the dark-skinned giant known as Agil.

Agil turned back once more to face Kibaou, who merely responded with a *Hmph*, going back to sit down in the front row with an angry look on his face. Once Agil followed suit, Diabel, who had chosen not to enter the opinion-slaughtering conversation, decided to continue. "All right. Let's continue then, shall we?"

"The latest edition of the Guide Book is out, and it contains information on the first floor boss," Diabel stated.

Again, gasps could be heard throughout the arena.

"According to the book, the boss's name is [[Illfang the Kobold Lord]]. He is guarded by assistants known as [[Ruin Kobold Sentinels]]. He wields an axe and wears a buckler. He has four HP bars, and when the last one goes into the red, he sheds his equipment and switches to a curved-sword type weapon called a [[Tulwar]]. His attack pattern changes as well."

Various "Wow!" s and "Amazing!"s could be heard.

"All right. This concludes the briefing. Lastly, items will be distributed to the player who earned them. The EXP goes to the party with the killing blow. Any objections?"

Silence.

"All right, we'll all meet here today at 13:00 (1:00). See you here!" Diabel said charismatically.

* * *

Protected from the sun by trees in full bloom, forty-four sets of feet traveled down the grassy path towards the [[Kobold Labyrinth]], which marked the end of Floor one. No sounds escaped the group, everyone focused on the task ahead.

Well…except for my own party.

"All right, one last time. We are to target the boss's lackeys, the [[Ruin Kobold Sentinels]]." I said, going over our information.

"I know."

"Good. Now, I'll start it by using a sword skill to knock their pole axes up, and then you switch in and deliver an attack." I said.

"Switch?"

_Oh, right. She was probably doing nothing but crying at the inn and fighting suicidally until I took her in._

"Okay, since I'm guessing you've never been in a party before, I'll explain. When I yell 'switch', you jump in and take my place. With your strength, you should be able to one-hit kill any of the sentinels, just don't try to take on the boss on your own."

"Okay."

* * *

Cold and dark, the room seemed to be the ideal place for the perfect storm. _I just know that something will go wrong. Someone's gonna die._

As Asuna and I walked closer to the door to the boss room, Diabel's grinning face came into view.

"All right, everyone. I have but one thing to say: let's win! Here we go!" he shouted, pushing the door open for everyone to run through. And we did.

* * *

In the zone, I simply watched as the charismatic hero-like Diabel led the battle with amazing skill. I kept watching on until I heard him give our party orders.

"D, E, F groups! Keep the sentinels off of us!" the blue-haired battle strategist shouted.

"Roger!" I shouted out in response to his command, unlike the other players who just silently followed orders like mutes.

I used a sword skill to knock one of the sentinel's weapons up, just like we planned, shouted "Switch!" and watched in awe as the blindingly fast Asuna launched a sword skill of her own.

Shouting, "Number three!" she struck the target in the weak spot I accidentally told her about three days ago, one-hit killing it. Luckily for me, she didn't question where I got the information, and even asked if there were any more of them for her to exploit.

We continued destroying the sentinel mobs in a similar fashion. Once I switched out with Asuna, I decided to look over at the boss out of curiosity, just to see how much further we were from (or how close we were to) defeating the first floor boss, the first step to clearing this wretched death game. To my surprise, I found that it had just recently gone into the red.

And then everything went to hell.

Suddenly, Diabel shouted, "I'll go!" and recklessly charged at the large boss on his own, stopping to prepare the best sword skill for his build. But I knew better.

Even if that particular skill landed a critical hit on one of the boss's weak points, it wouldn't be enough to kill it.

_We were supposed to surround it with the entire group!_

"_Looks like the guide was right_." I heard Kibaou say confidently in the back of my thoughts. He seemed to be sure of Diabel's victory.

_What a fool._

Illfang threw its axe and buckler aside and pulled out its second weapon.

A weapon that was most certainly_ not a [[__Tulwar__]]! _My blood turned to ice.

_It's a [[__Nodachi__]]! It's different from the beta! If it has that sword, then that means that its skills—_

"Diabel, jump back as fast as you can! NOW!" I screamed in the vain hope that he would listen.

He didn't.

Then, as I expected, the boss jumped up onto one of the pillars in the room, ricocheted to another, and another, then kicked off to land, badly hurting Diabel with a sword skill in the process. Then, as it got u,p it simultaneously slashed Diabel upwards and into the air.

When he hit the ground, I ran over to him, calling his name and loudly shouting, "What were you THINKING!?"

I quickly got out a potion and started to hand it to him, but he pushed it away. I gasped, wondering why he would do that, and desperately wanting to keep one more life from vanishing.

"You were… a beta-tester, weren't you? You know exactly what I was doing," he croaked, his voice fading.

"You wanted the [[Last Attack Bonus]] rare item. You were a beta-tester too?" I asked, knowing that these were probably going to be his last words.

His responded with merely a smile, as if he knew I would do it, and spoke his last words, "Please… defeat… defeat the boss… for everyone." And smiling to the end, his body finally dispersed into countless polygons—no, fragments of his soul, and blew away in the wind.

_When this death game started, the only thing I thought about was surviving._

_"Okay… goodbye Klein."_

_Even after I took Asuna in, I only really thought about strengthening myself. Surviving to protect her was just a tiny addition, so in essence, it's the same thing._

_However, Diabel, you were a beta tester, you never abandoned the other players. You led everyone, and you fought brilliantly! You tried to do what I couldn't. I'm sure the other players will never forget you. I'm sorry… and goodbye._

I turned around to find the boss roaring vehemently at the other players. I started to raise my sword, my [[Anneal Blade]]. Then, someone appeared beside me in a flash, saying, "I'll go too." _Asuna._

"Thanks." And then we ran towards the boss, going as fast as we could. "We'll do it just like the sentinels!" I ordered.

"Got it!" She responded.

Illfang noticed us running, stopped its relentless attacks, and charged up a sword skill meant for us. I charged up my own sword skill, and released it just in time to deflect the boss's skill up into the air, a safe enough distance away so that Asuna could use a sword skill. Or so I thought.

The hideously obese boss was faster than it appeared, and started slashing back down quicker than I calculated.

"ASUNA!" I shouted, knowing that she would understand perfectly well. My eyes picked up a momentary shift in her shoulders, a gasp of surprise.

She did what I hoped she would do, and jumped off of the side of the giant [[Nodachi]], but not before getting her cloak ripped to shreds. Then I saw something truly astounding. Even after what happened, she still executed a critical hit on the monster's weak point.

That aside, her beauty was _awe-inducing_. Long chestnut hair cascaded down to her hips as she landed on the ground, facing the boss with determination in her matching chestnut-colored eyes.

"He's coming back!" I exclaimed, running up to and in front of her to block its oncoming attack. And another attack, blocked. And another, and another, each time, giving room for Asuna to strike it.

I blocked again, but this time the boss had learned from its mistakes and came full circle with a spinning attack that knocked me back into Asuna. My sword skidded across the floor.

Down to just above the halfway mark, I knew that if it used a Sword Skill, I would die. Unfortunately for me, Illfang's actions mirrored my fears.

At the last second, a powerful Axe Skill blocked Illfang's attack, and I found Agil standing between me and the boss, both still recovering from their cooldown times. Agil's wore off first though, and he said, "We'll hold him off until you recover!"

Agil led the charge, and all of the players ran at it, swords blazing with skills of all colors. While they chipped away at its HP, I got up and grabbed my sword, ready to fight again. The boss unleashed a slash so powerful that it knocked all the players back with just the sheer force of the wind, and then jumped into the air, ready to strike down multiple players at once.

"I'LL GET YOU FIIIRST!" I screamed, jumping into the air and performing a exceptionally high [[Sonic Leap]], slashing and pushing the boss mob into the ground a few meters away from where the players were laying, saving them from being crushed.

When I landed, I rolled on the ground towards the boss, shouting, "Asuna! One last hit! We'll do it together!"

"Roger!" Asuna said, following into a run beside me. We followed the same pattern while the boss was still trying to get up, and then, it happened.

I put everything I had into that last skill, even a great portion of my own HP.

[[Crimson Momentum]]. It's a six-hit combo, and deals 125% the normal damage rate, _and _has no cool down, but it halves my current HP, so it's a very risky gamble, making it useless in a duel. I can add another three strikes in exchange for another 33% of my current HP after the first HP doc, and so on. I can have infinite strikes, and I'll never die unless I'm struck, but for each add-on any healing used on me is cut down by 33% repeatedly. Unless I have a level gap of ten or higher than the boss or player, it's a death wish. Plus, my physical exhaustion from lack of HP at the end is uncannily like a long cool down time anyway.

I only needed the initial six hits to finish it off, but of course due to using my trump card normal skill, and already having half of my HP gone beforehand, I wound up _dangerously_ close to the red, my breathing ragged.

A message window appeared before me, saying that I got the [[Last Attack Bonus]], and it then clicked. I had shown my best card early on. The upside, however, being that only Asuna could see my HP bar. I was confident that she wouldn't tell anyone. Luckily, I had been correct.

Agil and Asuna walked up to me with smiles on their faces, and the former said, "That was splendid swordsmanship. Congratulations, the battle is yours."

"No—"

Clapping could be heard surging throughout the entire boss room, until the angry cactus-headed player known as Kibaou spoke up, saying something that inwardly horrified me.

"WHY?!... Why… did you let Diabel die?"

"Let him die…?" I asked, feigning innocence. I didn't want to think about that, because I still felt like it was my fault for not being there to take the hit. I probably would've survived, and at the time, I only wanted to survive myself, not _truly_ wanting to put someone's life before my own.

"DON'T SCREW AROUND! You knew about the boss's skills beforehand!" Kibaou exclaimed angrily. "If you would have told us upfront, he would've lived," He muttered sadly, sniffing slightly.

"He… he must be a beta-tester! I'm sure there are more here! Come out!" a random player I didn't know said angrily, forgetting the most important thing: even the beta-testers are trapped in this death game.

"And what of Diabel? He _obviously_ knew about the LA bonus, and _he_ didn't tell you about it. He even refused the potion I gave him. He probably refused it because he knew I would point out what he did, something only a_ beta-tester _would know to do," Even though my words held some truth, I knew that Diabel wasn't meaning to cheat the players. I didn't want to slander his name.

"What?" the cactus headed fool finally started to catch on. Various noises of uncertainty were heard from the players throughout the boss room.

"Look, I'll be honest with you. I'm a beta-tester. But did any of you see when I saved Agil and the others from the boss, meeting it head-on in the air? Did you notice how I defended this girl, and many others here from a multitude of attacks from that wretched beast? I was able to defend her because I knew about the katana skills from the monsters on the floors high above us. Do you want to know what my reasons for defending them were? I care. I care about each and every one of the eight thousand players trapped in this game. We beta testers are _not_ as selfish as you make us out to be. You've all forgotten something that's very important. The beta-testers are trapped in this game too! Do you really think that just because we train harder than you're willing to, we're _immortal_? I say all this, and yet I know that it'll have little to no effect on most of you here, even though I just explained it clear as day! So you know what? I'm done. You can try to clear the floors on your own! Assuming _I _don't clear them first, of course."

I ignored the shocked faces of the players probably soon to be contorted into anger and hate, as I strode back to where I defeated the boss and accepted the LA bonus.

"Beta-tester… Cheater… He's a beater…" I heard a player say under his breath while I walked through the crowd.

"I heard that. You called me a beater. But you know what I think about it? I like it! That's right, I'm the [[Black Beater]]. Remember it, because I _will_ be the one to _beat_ this game!" I exclaimed lividly.

I equipped my bonus item, the [[Cloak of Midnight]], and began the walk to the stairs that would lead me one step closer to getting out of this virtual hell.

Once I got halfway up the stairs, I heard a voice call my name. "Kirito-kun!"

Asuna, my treasured second friend I made in the new SAO. I had to break our bond, keeping her best interests at heart. It was for the best.

"What do you want?" I inquired coldly, putting up a façade.

"I-I want to c-continue partying with you! Just because they don't like you doesn't mean that I don't!" Asuna pleaded frantically, hoping that I'd change my mind.

"That's exactly why. It's not fair to you to get hated just because you're with me." I continued walking up the stairs, my heart clenching tighter with each step I took.

"Then, promise me that we'll meet again," She said, her voice shaking.

"All right, I promise. Goodbye," I said while disbanding the party.

_"Arigatou, sayonara." _I flinched, those last few words reminded me of a painful memory of someone.

I pushed open the door, opening up a whole other world within the floating castle, [[Aincrad]]. A whole world that I could revisit, remembering the happy times. But before that, I had to get something out of my system.

As soon as the door disappeared behind me, I said, "I'll save you this time, I swear. Neither you, nor anyone I meet, will ever be subjected to death again."

I gathered up all the pain and rage from the fight into her name, and roared it to the heavens.

"SAAACCHIIIII!"

**A/N:**

**Yeah, I know, I pretty much reiterated the entirety of episode two, just replacing the regular 'beater' part with an explanation of the lengths he went to help the regular players. I had to do that, for the plot bunnies' sake. They're starving, remember? They only eat reviews. Please donate a review to save a plot bunny near you!**

**Sooo, Kirito remembers Sachi now, huh? To be clear, he only remembers her name, face, and that he 'let her die'. Don't worry, the main ship is still the S.S. Kirisuna!**

**As always, leave a review if you want to share your opinion with me, and PM me if you see any plot holes that need fixing.**

**Constructive criticism is allowed, but flamers beware that I have to value your opinion for the insults to hurt.**

**For the non-flamers out there, I need ideas for floors three and four, I need about one male and one female beta-tester OC, and so if you can help with that, I'd be grateful. Also, if you want to, you can make them have gunblades (I know that's a little too mainstream, but it's just an idea-starter) or something similar, since there **_**are **_**some serious system anomalies.**

**I **_**completely **_**forgot to do this in the past two chapters. Don't kill me, Aniplex. I do not own the anime, light novels, manga, characters, or half the dialogue I used from episode two.**

**Ps: I stayed up all night writing this, so be gentle.**

**May Happiness Be With You,**

**OMG**

**Edit: I received a review saying I overpowered Kirito with that new skill. Well, think about this: if he spams the skill too much, then he'd have so little HP that one hit from a level one mob would be fatal. Plus, the exhaustion from the loss of HP serves as its own cool down time, and a really long one at that.**

**Edit#2:**

**I tried to explain the limitations of the skill in the description paragraph, instead of just talking about it at the end.**

_**Rewrite edit:**_

_**Yeah, I know that I seriously changed the plot there, but sometimes that's what rewrites are for, right? The biggest plot change that happened so far was actually just that Kirito won't be hated as much. Cactus head (Kibaou) is still around though, so there will be some Kiri-haters out there. Kibaou just likes to mess things up that way.**_

_**I also weakened Kirito's trump-card to make it less god-like. Unfortunately, dual blades doesn't count, because he has neither mastered it, nor does he have the desire for the publicity it brings.**_

_**Lastly, I tried to fix some passive writing. There might be more grammar mistakes than before, but that's only 'cause my beta won't be accessible for a while. (Outdated, my beta just got back.)**_


	4. Chapter 4: Overpowered Boss

Chapter 4

Error: Overpowered Boss

* * *

I woke up screaming.

Every day since I had abandoned Asuna, it was always the same.

They would haunt my dreams, giving me different dreams every night. Asuna, the girl I abandoned for both our sakes, and Sachi, the mysterious and beautiful girl from my memory, or that's what my gut instinct told me. Some dreams were happy, some sad, some scary, some embarrassing, but they would always end the same way. I would see scenes of each of them dying, and then their voices would overlap, saying the only words that were able to drive me insane, pushing me over the edge.

_"Arigatou, Sayonara."_

I felt tears in my eyes, begging me to let them spill out onto my pillow, the dream still vivid in my mind.

Someone came into my room, making the nightmares vanish from my mind, quickly followed by a sigh of relief by me.

"You had that nightmare again, didn't you?" A gentle, smooth voice said, sitting down on the bed next to my sprawled-out form.

"Yeah, you know me too well, Miko-chan. Thanks for putting up with this every morning. Your patience, kindness, and cooking skills are on a whole other level," I said gratefully, closing my eyes and enjoying the smell of breakfast cooking in the other room.

_Wait a second, breakfast? _I got up swiftly, hugging her and saying, "You made breakfast again! Thank you!"

I admit, we are a little closer than normal friends, but that's really just because she looks uncannily like my first crush and kendo sparring partner from before I quit. The only difference between them is their personalities, which were _polar opposites_. That's my reason, anyway. Oh wait, and her cooking reminds me of my aunt's as well, having a diverse selection of unbelievably good flavors.

"A-any time, Kiri-kun. Bu-but could you please let me—huh?"

Up and running towards the kitchen, I never gave her the time to finish her sentence.

At least some things in the beta stayed the same. I still knew from the beta where the quests were that paid out the option to buy a house, and so far they were still there with no changes.

My house had a typical medieval appearance on the exterior, but on the inside it was fit for a prince. Actually, it was the house of a medieval prince. To get it, you had to first complete the quest [[Kings Lost Child]], then the quest [[The Fugitive Prince]], and finally, the quest, [[Repairing Royal Bonds]], each quest unlocking solely for the player or party that completed the previous quest. In other words, all three were just parts of a giant quest chain.

The people in the beta gave up on just the first quest alone, seeing as there were no rewards, and no one knew what a Chain Quest was yet, save for me and the four other players who were MMORPG veterans. The bright side was that after you got the third quest completed, you got this house for free as a 'gift' from the prince in the second quest.

"Mou, you don't have to get so excited about it. Seriously, you're stuck with me until either you clear the second floor on your own or someone else maps out the dungeon, so you just have to get used to my cooking or you'll run around and break something with your reckless excitement," Kamiko scolded sternly, blushing slightly. Kamiko had originally said that she would be living with me until I got my nightmares under control, but eventually, it turned into "that."

After the meal, I decided to ask Argo a few questions that had been on my mind lately. I somehow sensed her listening in, probably still trying to get information about my so-called "ultimate skill". I had constantly avoided telling her about it, knowing that it could get someone else hurt trying to get it.

"Hey, Argo, I've got a deal for you. You answer my questions, and I'll tell you about my skill."

"Wha- how the heck did you know? Well whatever, I'll do it for the sake of my skill data collection," Argo said bewilderedly, walking around the corner that leads to my room.

_That's right, Argo will do anything to get her claws on a sword skill's information, especially about powerful skills that weren't well known in the beta. I've hit the jackpot!_

"All right, let's get started. Question one, is Asuna alive?" Argo nodded, so I continued, "All right, now onto question two. Is she doing well?"

Argo grinned cheekily "Ya know, she asks me the same about you every time we meet, seeing as I told her I was your friend. I feel bad for her, so I've stopped charging. Well, anyway, she always seems to be sad, but she perks up every time I tell her you're doing well. I know it's a lie, but I didn't want to make her even more depressed than she already was, so I had to try to put a smile on her face. Please don't torture me!" Argo rambled on, at the end getting down on her knees and begging pitifully. She knew very well from the beta that I _hated _lies.

"Relax," I said gently. "The only thing I'm mad about was that you were charging her for something as trivial as that. Since that's just typical of you, I'll overlook it." Then, teasingly, I said, "That was uncharacteristically nice of you to put someone else's feelings into consideration. Kudos."

"Now, one last question. What level is she?" I inquired. I hoped against hope for her to be high-leveled, even though she didn't need it with her natural talent.

To tell the truth, I was worried. Worried, because in the two weeks since our sad parting, she still hasn't forgotten about me. _If she's been coming to Argo so frequently, then how much time has she spent leveling?_

Argo's response confirmed my suspicions, as well as shocked me. "Mou, Ki-Bou, I'm supposed to be the one to tease you, not the other way around. Anyway, since she's been coming to me every day, she's probably a lot lower-leveled than you. She just got to level twenty-four yesterday."

"EVERY DAY?! Is she really that concerned about me? Well, tell her that she doesn't need to concern herself with me, and to focus on leveling up instead. Tell her that I won't die, and that I _will _meet her again."

That was a lie, as I had no intention of meeting her again. To be honest, I wanted her to hate me, like I thought everyone else did. Even though I hated lies to an alarming extent, I felt the need to make this girl happy.

In my dreams, which I had reason to think were fragments of the future, I would always see her dying in my arms. I didn't want that to happen, so I wanted to distance myself from her in hopes of stopping that future from even _possibly _occurring.

"Wait, what are you doing?" I asked, eyeing her suspicious actions. She had brought up the main menu, then the friends window, then the PM window, typing something out.

"What does it look like? I'm telling Asuna what you said to tell her, baka!" she said, looking at me like I was a total idiot.

"Wait, you guys friended each other?" I gave a sigh, "Whatever. With you, Argo, you'll always try to send something to embarrass me along with it, so let me have a look."

I did _not _like the look of the grin I got in response.

I walked over to her, looked over her shoulder, and low and behold, she had indeed typed out something embarrassing. Other that what I had told her to say, there was also this:

_"Ki-Bou really seems to care deeply for you. How did you seduce him when he only saw you with your cloak off for like, ten minutes? I must learn your secret. It would be perfect for getting people to pay more for information! Cya tomorrow! -Argo"_

Before I could stop her, Argo pressed send, and my cheeks flushed three shades of red, two of which were from dangerously intense anger.

"ARGO!"

Then, Kamiko stopped what could have turned into a war between two of the strongest players in the game. "Um, Kiri-kun, Argo-san, who is Asuna?" she asked innocently.

"Oh, she's just Ki-Bou's girlf—" Argo immediately decided to rephrase that when I sent her a glare with the force of a thousand suns. "She's just a girl he took in after he saw her immense potential being wasted. He taught her how to use her potential to the fullest, and then she became very attached to him. I'm not sure if it's completely mutual, since this _is_ the first time he's asked about her."

"That's because I knew if I asked, you'd pull a stunt like this! Besides, I don't want her hated because she's around me, so I want her to either hate me or forget about me," I said, finishing on a sad note.

"You really are an idiot, Ki-Bou. You get so blinded by your concern for others that you don't see how much they care about you," Argo scolded sadly.

"Anyway, you wanted to hear about my skill, right? Here goes nothing. [[Crimson Momentum]]is a high-damage, nearly self-sacrificial skill. It's a six-hit combo, and deals 125% the normal damage rate, _and _has no cool down, but it halves my current HP, so it's a very risky gamble, making it useless in a duel. I can add three strikes in exchange for another 33% of my current HP, any number of times. I can have infinite strikes, and I'll never die unless I'm hit, but if I do…I'm dead. It's not a Unique Skill, but at the same time, only one person can get it. To get it, you have to be the first person to get the LA bonus on the [[Alpha Dire Wolf]]while in the red," I explained.

"Oh yeah, I remember now. In the beta, that chick with the white hair was obsessed with the Crimson-themed Skills. She was so mad that you got this skill that she would constantly fight you, just to prove that her abundance of Crimson Skills were better than your single skill. Funny how she lost every time," she said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but that's just because she spammed the heck out of those skills. Sure, they have a lot of power, but they also have setbacks." I said, definitively.

*knock knock knock*

"I'll get it! I'm coming!" I said, getting up to answer the door, only to find a teenage boy about my age, wearing tattered clothes.

"Hello, are you the [[Black Beater]]?"

* * *

About a half an hour later, the teenage boy, now known to us as Cirdan, was fully fed and ready to explain why he came. "I was looking for you so you could tell me some good places to find large amounts of Col."

"If you're looking for a lot of Col, I'm guessing you're trying to complete the [[Touch of Gold]] quest."

"Right in one, just like last time."

I blinked. _Wait a moment..._

"How could I forget the best strategist in the beta?" I asked, slightly irritated. "You were always in the clearing parties, up until floor five when you vanished in the middle of a mini boss fight. Why'd you disappear like that?"

"Ah, that. Well, my dad decided to take away my nerve gear right at the worst possible time. He wouldn't give it back, so at the time of the official release, I found, took, and used the nerve gear to get in this death game. Big mistake, huh. Yeah, so do you think you can help me? In the beta test, I had to Col grind for TWO WHOLE WEEKS before I had enough to complete it!" he explained, embarrassed.

"Let's see. You need eighty thousand Col, right? I can just pay you however much you still need since I've been doing nothing but questing and mapping, but knowing you, you won't accept that. I do know of a way to get it, but if you're going, then I'm going with you," I said sternly, pulling up my menu and sending him a partying request.

"Thanks, man, I knew I could count on you! So, party means… either a field boss or a mini boss quest. I'm level twenty-four. What level are you?" he said, "For that matter, what's the boss's level?"

Cirdan's one of _those_ people. He knows that I can judge how much people need to prepare, and in which areas, by their equipment, the rank of the quest or [[chain quest]], how many people are in the party, and the level of each individual player in the aforementioned party.

"I'm level twenty-seven right now. Let's see now, our levels are both good, your equipment looks slightly above average, we'll be in a two-person party, the quest is AA-ranked for this floor, the quest boss is level twenty, your new build is a cleaver and shield, and the quest reward is twenty five thousand Col, divided among party members. You probably have enough to cover the rest, so we just need to level you up one more level so you can get the level twenty-five Cleaver. I'll pay for the Cleaver from the midnight merchant, so that you get a chance at a Rare or higher one, and no objections, got it?"

"S-sir, yes sir!"

* * *

About a day later, we had taken care of his level and the Cleaver, accepted the quest, and found ourselves in the cave of the quest boss. The cave, dubbed Phibbius' Cave, in honor of the boss, [[Phibbius the Frog King]], lay before us. Filled with bridge-like stone arcs that traversed over rivers of red water, full of high-level fish mobs, most players gave this spacious, ominous dungeon a pass.

"Let me get this straight. We're fighting a giant frog?" Cirdan questioned disbelievingly, for the fourth time. I had counted his questions out of the sheer boredom that this cave seemed to bring to me, there being no mobs except the boss, his assistants, and the crazy amount of water-dwelling mobs. The water-dwelling mobs were all really high leveled, even in the beta, so they couldn't be fought at that point. The high experience just wasn't worth the risk of death.

There wasn't anything to fight on land, a blessing to the average player. However, the MMO veterans from the beta knew better. The best places to level were always in the boss's dungeon, so the lack of monsters told us that the boss would be at a higher than average level, which was very alarming. Many players died trying to complete this quest in the beta, Cirdan included, and if all of the floor bosses changed, then that could mean that this boss did too.

"All right, beyond this door is the throne room of this cave's boss, [[Phibbius the Frog King]]. Are you ready, Cirdan?" I asked calmly, though I was very nervous on the inside.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself. My mind raced, desperately trying to figure out what changes would most likely be made to the quest boss, since there was a ninety-seven percent chance that any beta knowledge had to be considered useless at this point.

"I was born ready, Kirito," Cirdan smiled confidently.

_He'll have to watch that._ I thought warily.

"All right, time to talk strategy. What have you thought up at this time, Cirdan?"

"Whew, I seriously thought you were going to try to come up with a strategy." He started, laughing intensely afterwards. He then donned a serious face. "Well, I'm building tanky this time through, so I trust you can see where I'm going with that?"

"You tank, I DPS?" I asked rhetorically, and got a nod in response.

"Provided the attack windows are the same, this fight should be a breeze. I know their patterns well enough to get... Perfect Blocks."

"Nice. If they decided to change the boss, we'll improvise, okay?"

We entered the giant double doors to the boss room, me being surprised to see that the boss had been enlarged since the beta, and as its form started to move into the light in the center of the room, we saw something that almost certainly spelled our doom.

[[**Phibbius the Frog King**]], was at level thirty-two.

As the doors shut and locked behind us, we knew that our fates were sealed.

We were going to die.

* * *

**A/N:**

**CLIFFHANGER!**

**To anyone who **_**still **_**thinks that I seriously overpowered Kirito, here are some things you need to know.**

**I think I might have explained this to some who have PMed me, but Kirito isn't the only Champion out there. Each of the unknown GMs will have one as their secret weapon for defeating Heathcliff on the one hundredth floor (in other words, stopping Kayaba Akihiko from destroying the lives of any more players).**

**All of the Champions will have a unique skill, each with amazing capabilities.**

**All of the Crimson skills/weapons/equipment (yes, there are a lot of them) are extremely powerful, but all have HUGE setbacks, like how the one Kirito has is nearly suicidal, should it be spammed.**

**Also, I felt like I should mention that Crimson can also be a class, like (Rare) and above. The rarity of the Crimson CLASS varies from floor to floor. Sometimes they're rarer than (Ancient) class items, and sometimes they're more common than normal drops.**

**As always, positive criticism is taken into consideration, and flames are ignored.**

**Rewrite edit: YAAAAAY! Finally done with the rewrite! Now I can get back to writing new chapters! Oh, I forgot to explain this, but the reason Cirdan (supposedly) knew their attack patterns is because he fought other mobs with the same attack patterns on higher floors. Kirito had mentioned the attack patterns of the boss and minions' patterns in passing during one of their conversations in the beta, and Cirdan associated them with monsters on their current floor.**

**May happiness be with you (and hopefully the willingness to review),**

**OMG**


	5. Chapter 5: The Second Champion

Chapter 5

Error: Multiple Champions

* * *

_We entered the giant double doors to the boss room, and were surprised to see that the boss had been enlarged since the beta. As its form started to move into the light in the center of the room, we saw something that almost certainly spelled our doom._

_[[Phibbius the Frog King]]__, was at level thirty._

_As the doors shut and locked behind us, we knew that our fates were sealed._

_We were going to die_.

* * *

Originally three and a half meters tall, [[Phibbius the Frog King]] now towered above us at five meters tall, earning the title of scariest frog-ish mob in SAO by far.

The boss had the body of a frog, but the head of a salamander atop the upper body of a muscular man with outrageously bulky arms. The toes of the frog half were claws, and its right hand held a giant sword, all equal in proportion.

"I don't see any minions, though. Wait, Kirito, there's someone over there! She's almost dead!" Cirdan exclaimed, pointing thirty degrees to our left. My blood nearly froze in my veins when I identified Asuna sprawled out on the ground, a measly sliver of her HP left.

Then it clicked perfectly. [[Phibbius the Frog King's]] minions had a secret ability once defeated. When they were destroyed, they did not go back to the recesses of the [[Cardinal System]]. Instead, their essence merged with Phibbius, making it gain levels, power, stamina, and size. However, this immense set of power-ups did have a trade-off: its speed drastically fell once all of the minions were absorbed.

"The boss attacks the enemy with the most HP! Since you probably have the highest CON stat, it'll go after you. You were able to use perfect blocks well in the beta, so you should defend, while I heal her!" I commanded.

"Got it!"

"BAKA! Why in KAYABA'S NAME would you try to solo this quest boss?!" I inquired frantically, rushing over to her collapsed form. From my inventory, I quickly materialized the most expensive potion money could buy on floor two, and poured all of its contents into her mouth, jarring her back into consciousness.

She sat up groggily, holding her left hand to her head. "What happened? Huh? Kirito-kun! You kept your promise!" She exclaimed happily, hugging me tighter than I thought the system could allow.

"Uh, guys? I'm kinda on my own here. Can I get some help?" Cirdan inquired nervously, looking in our direction. His attention was forcibly returned to the fight when Phibbius' sword cleaved around, attempting to behead him.

"Kirito, my rapier is broken, I can't fight," Asuna said worriedly, watching Cirdan deflect another attack.

"We can't run away, the doors are locked. Right now, I'm going to protect you," I said comfortingly. "Hey, Cirdan! You never got to this part of the quest, so I'll tell you something. Right now, it's at its maximum speed it can achieve, so it should be easier to figure out its attack patterns! When you do, signal me, and I'll take over! Until then, just keep its blind spot near me! I trust you've already figured out the blind spot's location."

"Roger!"

As he kept the boss's attention while analyzing its attack patterns, I struck a couple of times from its blind spot: his human part's back. This opened a window for him to attack from the front and judge its reaction to both places being struck.

"All right, I've got it! You make a weak spot in its back! Then, if we both attack at the same time, from the back and the left side, it'll topple over, giving us a chance to— WHOA!" Cirdan didn't get to finish, as the boss, used the sword in its right hand to slash _through_ his shield and into his chest, blasting him back into a wall and bringing his health into the red. Luckily, that's where it stopped.

"CIRDAN!" I yelled, about to run over to him when a familiar voice stopped me.

"I'll help him, you go defeat that thing with your unique skill!"

_That's-! _"Got it!" I said, following my old frienemie's orders. I charged at the beast, at the same time manipulating my in-game menu to materialize my [[Wolf King Einshander]].

I wasn't sure if I had made right move, but I needed to beat this boss at all costs.

I charged up an extra skill, known as [[Frenzy]], and my sword gleamed green, getting brighter and stronger in the time I charged it up. When I finally released it, my newly acquired three-hit combo made its first execution—something definitely worth noting.

My speed increased with each strike. Just before the negative effects would have occurred, I used one of my last-resort skills, the [[Skill Chain]], to execute [[Gemini Force]], another Dual Blade skill.

This skill is unique to dual blades and is one that I never knew existed, considering its benefits. It is unique because it can only be obtained on a lower floor with the user having a relatively low level. It deals the combined damage of both the weapons as standalone, with ten percent additional damage on top of that, no cooldown time, or any other negative status effect.

The downside to all this, however, was that I couldn't think of another skill to use that would have a profound effect on the boss in time for the chain to continue. Thus I found all of the negative status effects were coming over me. Frenzy in particular gave me a ten second [[Vulnerability]] - during which I take thirty percent more damage from most attacks.

Vulnerable and exhausted, I knew I would get seriously hurt if I didn't move. I just couldn't find the strength to do so.

Suddenly, the familiar player stepped in front of me to block an oncoming attack with her katana just in time to save me from a powerful Sword Skill. Her STR stat must have been very high for her level, because even with a lightweight sword like the [[Crimson Katana]] she used, she seemed to be blocking the oncoming strike with relative ease.

"All right, we'll fight him together using that guy's strategy!" she said, pointing to Cirdan. "Ready, GO!" she promptly switched to the offensive. Our eyes met for only a moment, but I knew she understood what my next move would be.

I used a [[Blink Cut x3]], leaving gashes on the frog half and stabbing through the beast's back legs to flip myself onto the creature's back. I turned around and then blurred through the human half's back. I flew towards the wall, kicked off of it, and blurred through to the back side, while the other player kept its attention so I could get my mini-plan executed perfectly.

Blink Cut x3 is a more advanced variation of Blink Cut, but, as the name describes, it cuts through the target three times. When used in certain areas, it makes a weak spot. The drawback is that the attack damage is reduced by thirty five percent, and it leaves me with the [[Vulnerable]] status condition for three seconds.

My plan to create a weak spot in both the front of the frog half and the back of the human half had to succeed. That way, if I ever ended up having to attack its front, I could use an uppercut to slash through both weak spots.

Once the three seconds were over, I turned around and said, "All right, I created a weak spot, let's go! I'll go from the back!"

She dashed towards Phibbius' left side, its giant sword following her the entire time. While running, I charged up a [[Twin Pierce]], while she charged up her own skill. We hit the boss at the same time, sending it back into the right side of the boss doors and toppling it over, with a great crater forming where the boss met with the wall.

We seized this opportunity to attack the quest boss's underbelly relentlessly, until I remembered what the [[Last Attack Bonus]] had been in the beta.

"Cirdan! Throw me your Cleaver!" I exclaimed. If this worked out like I thought it would, then he would be one lucky guy.

"What?!" he inquired wildly, uncertain as to what I meant. When he caught on, he threw the axe in my direction, saying, "Got it! Good luck, man!"

I caught it, starting to hack away at Phibbius' remaining HP, finally destroying it with his axe, and earning Cirdan the Last Attack Bonus. The LA Bonus for this particular quest boss happened to be a Cleaver type weapon, [[Parting Rapids]], which converted half the damage done into the Water element, but reduced the user's Fire resistance.

"Well, that wasn't what I expected at all. I thought your Crimson Skill was your Unique Skill," the player said, surprised.

"You mean to tell me that you_ didn't_ know about my dual wield skill? You _seriously_ thought that my [[Crimson Momentum]] was a unique skill?" I said, incredulous.

"If I say yes, will you get mad at me?" the girl said timidly.

"Wait, wait. This isn't like you at all. You weren't like this in the beta," I said, wondering what kind of trick she seemed to be playing on me.

This girl, Aria, happened to be the girl that envied my Crimson Skills. She had white hair, red eyes, and never wore any armor. Instead, she wore skimpy clothing too big for her, the straps of her shirt often falling off. She had a delicate figure, was three centimeters shorter than I was, and had a moderately large bust. In the beta, she held the title of third strongest, me and Kamiko being first and second, respectively. In short, yet another beautiful girl making an appearance in my game life.

I felt an inexplicable chill go down my spine at that thought.

"What do you mean? I wasn't in the beta. Oh, you're talking about my sister. She said she designed her avatar after my appearance," she said, computing something. "OH! You must be Kirito! My sister told me a lot about you! My name is Rita."

"In game, or out of game?" I asked, the name feeling a little too strange to be just an in-game name. It fit her appearance too much.

"Both!" she said happily. I fought the urge to face palm.

_She's an idiot. Who in Kayaba's name would use their real name in a game like this?_

"So, to get this straight, you don't hate me like your sister did in the beta, right?" I inquired, not wanting to have an enemy this strong so early on.

"Why would I hate you? I don't have a reason to. Just because she hated you doesn't mean I do."

"_Just because THEY don't like you doesn't mean I don't!"_

_That sounded almost exactly like Asuna. Wait a second,_ "Asuna!"

"Hold on a second, please," I said quickly, running over to the girl in question. "Asuna, are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"

"You already gave me a potion, remember? I'm fine, don't worry," she said drowsily.

"Oh, right," I said, relieved. _Wow, what a crazy day._

"Though I'm finding it very hard to stand up," she said. Her wobbling legs only emphasizing the point.

_I guess she's still physically exhausted. What a bother._

After we all left the boss room together, I asked a question that had been gnawing at my mind since Rita mysteriously got to the boss room and defended me. "Rita, how exactly _did_ you get into the boss room?"

"Oh, that. I came through another entrance on the other end of the boss room," she said nonchalantly. I just stood there, shocked. Then I turned towards the direction indicated to see that - yes, there was another door.

_How could I have _missed_ that?_

"Don't worry though. They only open from the outside, so you don't need to regret not noticing it, 'cause we wouldn't have been able to evacuate anyway," she said, noticing the expression on my face.

This time, I gave in to the urge and introduced my palm to my face.

_She really is an idiot. Kudos to her for noticing how I felt about it, though._

Asuna spoke up from her position on my shoulder. "You guys seem like old friends. Do you know each other from outside the game?"

"No, but I knew her sister from the beta, and she modeled her avatar after Rita here." _That's right, she didn't hear us talking about that earlier._

"Oh, okay," Asuna said, sounding relieved._ I _on the other hand found it difficult to keep my rising panic down as realizations dawned.

_This is really bad. I made too much of an impression on her. At this point, I can't do anything, because she probably won't want to leave me regardless of what happens! Wait a second, EVERY SINGLE PERSON HERE saw my dual wield! What am I gonna do?_

"Guys, I have a request," I said, the ground suddenly seeming very interesting. I couldn't deny my nervousness, as none of them had any reason to listen to me.

"Okay," they all said in unison.

"I want you to keep my dual wield a secret. I don't want it to become public news that I have that kind of [[Unique Skill]]. People would be envious of me, and it's not like they don't hate me enough already."

And now several people were staring at me oddly.

"None of the people I've met so far have said anything negative about you. All they've done is tell me to give their gratitude to you for taking the first step in clearing the so-called game when I told them I was looking for you. Then again, I've never met up with Kibaou's posse, so I don't know if he's corrupted the clearing party," Rita said.

"Yeah, once the people you saved told the people of your efforts when we got back to the [[Starting City]], everyone started cheering," Asuna added, "You're not hated. In fact, a lot of the people look up to you."

"You haven't been out of your house much, have you, Kirito? Then again, I sure as heck can't blame you, you do have an _amazing_ house, with its two beds and a bath," Cirdan said matter-of-factly.

_Thanks for trying to comfort me, guys._

"WHAT?!" both girls yelled in unison.

_Kami-sama, please save me now._

"Well, yeah, but I already have Miko-chan in one of the beds, and I'm not sure the house would fit four people. Well, five if Cirdan wants to stay. Even if it _could_, I'm not sure if I'd let all of you stay."

Then, of course, things went to hell.

"Hey, check it out, it's the [[Black Beater]]!"

_You can't _possibly_ be serious!_ I snarled internally, _Why him of all people right now?_

"Who are your friends there? It's hard to believe you even _have_ any friends. After all, you've been doing nothing but mapping the boss dungeon since you got here, and you haven't shared it with anyone. I'm _sure_ that you finished at least a few days ago, and no one's ever even _heard_ from you since the boss fight."

_Kibaou, you jerk. You're trying to alienate my friends!_

"Are you headed to the quest boss's room with your posse, Kibaou? If so, I recommend against it," I said with a calm exterior, though inwardly I seethed.

"Why? Does a beater like you even care?" one of Kibaou's men scoffed.

"You must have forgotten what he said during his speech after the boss fight, huh? He _obviously_ cares a lot," Asuna said angrily.

"Look, I don't want to fight you, I just want to stop you from committing suicide," I said firmly.

"Why? Shouldn't all players get an equal opportunity to get ahead in this game, even if their method of choice _is_ a fools' move?"

_That_ inquiry drew disbelieving stares from my friends and Kibaou's posse alike. The speaker; a man with red-tinted leather armor, silvery hair and a muscular figure, seemed to have come out of nowhere.

"Why YOU?! Don't call me a fool!" Kibaou shouted in rage.

I stayed silent, all of my body movements coming to a stop, as if all of my energy was flowing into my racing mind._ Who is this man? I know him! I don't know how, but I know him! Something's off about him, as if he's angry at me for some reason._

When I came to, I found myself retorting angrily, "We barely got out alive! We're probably some of the strongest players in the game, and look at us!" I half-shouted, pointing to my allies and their tattered clothes.

"And, despite your claims, you don't have so much as a scratch. Ah, I see. You must be the [[Black Beater]]. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Heathcliff," the man said.

His statement reminded me that I was the only one who didn't lose any HP or have any scratches on my armor. Even Rita had suffered minor damage at the hands of the boss while defending me and Cirdan.

"Kirito," I said flatly, "I normally fight solo, but I partied up with Cirdan to take on that quest boss. We only got out alive because this girl, Rita, jumped in and saved us. Then we used a strategy that Cirdan came up with, and barely defeated the boss. Don't try it; you wouldn't be able to do it alone. And _you_, Kibaou, wouldn't be able to do it with an entire raid group," I said firmly.

"Why you?!"

"Well, since we seem to be at an impasse, I propose this. Defeat me in a duel, and I will personally guard this place in attempt to stop players from fighting this quest boss. If I win, however, you will join me as second-in-command at the time when I form a guild. Until then, you will leave the clearing party."

"Kirito-kun—" Asuna protested.

_This is so familiar! But this pretentious prick attacked my pride. I won't - no - I _can't_ back down._

"That's fine. I'm better with swords than words. Let's settle this with a duel."

**CLIFFHANGER!**

**Awesome! My first new chapter since the rewrite! I'm finally back on the plot express and I'm ecstatic to be back.**

**I'm thinking of making this an AsunaxKiritoxSachi fic, since Sachi is just awesome like that. (Seriously, if you look up Kirito's relationships in the wiki, it says that an interview with the creator revealed Sachi to be Kirito's first love.) Review to let me know your feedback.**

**Starting today, I now have a new (Plothole) beta! With our combined efforts, I think this story will be a lot better from now on.**

**Will Kirito be able to beat Heathcliff? Find out in the next exciting chapter!**

**May happiness be with you,**

**OMG**


	6. Chapter 6: Error: Vision is Red

Chapter Six

Error: Vision is Red

"_Well, since we seem to be at an impasse, I propose this. Defeat me in a duel, and I will personally guard this place in an attempt to stop players from fighting this quest boss. If I win, however, you will join me as second-in-command at the time when I form a guild. Until then, you will leave the clearing party."_

_"Kirito-kun—" Asuna protested._

_**This is so familiar! But this pretentious prick attacked my pride. I won't - no - I can't back down.**_

_"That's fine. I'm better with swords than words. Let's settle this with a duel."_

"Very well. I don't believe you want them to watch, so we will go to a deeper spot in the cave, where no one will have the chance. I presume that your group will hold them off until the duel has been completed," he said, catching on to my wishes and obliging them.

"Thanks, I'll remember this kindness next time one of your future guild mates is in trouble," I said, waiting to see his reaction. I felt like something would happen if I said those words, so I decided to test it out.

"Well, Kirito-kun, it will be common courtesy, seeing as you _will_ be initiated into the guild the next time we meet."

_This seems vaguely familiar, just like I thought._

"You mean you're _seriously_ going to just leave without us? Why? He could be trying to PK you, Kirito-kun!" Asuna was livid.

"We'll see about that." I said, ignoring Asuna entirely.

"No, Kirito-kun!" Asuna shouted yet again. I motioned to my sort-of friends to hold her back.

"Don't worry, Asuna. He's the strongest player in the game, bar none. You've seen his power first-hand," Rita said, trying to comfort the poor girl.

"Yeah, he'll be just fine. If I know Kirito, he'll _definitely_ keep his streak. You see, Kirito has never _once_ lost a duel in his life. He has tied at a duel once, but never lost." Cirdan said confidently.

"It was my idea, Asuna. He just figured it out when our eyes met," I said.

* * *

As we walked deeper through the cave, I started to question myself._ What is he doing, leading me so deep into the cave? We definitely should be far enough away by now._

"We're being followed," he said quietly, so that only I could hear him.

"Should we try to lose them?" I asked, confident in his speed. He seemed to be a really strong player, so even if his DEX stat was low, we definitely had the ability to escape them. Our [[Hiding Skill]] helped a little, too.

"[[Hiding Skill]], or running? I'm not going to lie; I don't think I would be able to keep up with your speed." Heathcliff said, surprising me.

_This guy isn't being truthful with me. Somehow, I can just tell. I guess I'll play along._

"Hiding it is, then. Three, two, one!" I whispered to the man before me.

As we activated our [[Hiding Skills]], we heard collective noises of dissatisfaction. Ignoring this, we continued our trek through the cave until Heathcliff deactivated his [[Hiding Skill]] and turned around.

I followed suit, and immediately afterwards I realized why he made us walk so far.

"You knew they would follow us. That way they would get lost, and neither be able to enter the quest boss room, nor be able to find us. That would've been dangerous if there were any monsters on land, but I've got to admit, that was good thinking in this case."

"Why thank you. You truly are as intelligent as the people make you out to be. Now, let's see if your strength matches your intelligence. I look forward to this duel," Heathcliff said calmly, sending a duel invitation.

Because the player who accepts the duel chooses the type of match, and because this was now a death game, I chose the [[First Strike]] mode. In this mode, the first person to make a clean hit, or reduce the opponent's damage by half, wins.

As the countdown started, Heathcliff said something that almost made my heart stop. "I do hope that you will show me this Unique Skill that everyone is talking about."

_How does he know about it?! I don't get it! Wait a second, he probably meant my [[__Crimson Momentum__]]. Whew, that's good; I thought that I'd have to find _yet another_ way to keep someone from talking about it._

"You mean [[Crimson Momentum]]? I hate to break it to you, but that's not a [[Unique Skill]]. It's just a skill that only one person can get, but it can still be obtained by anyone. It just so happens that I met the requirements to get it. Do I need to explain further?" I told him.

"No, that won't be necessary, thank you. Now, on your guard - it's about time for the duel to start."

_10, 9, 8…_

_Judging from the build of his long-sword and shield, he probably has a hybrid stat build. His is probably __+2 STR__, and __+1 CON__, meaning he probably won't be very fast, just like he said. Of course, if his weapon, shield, or one of his accessories is a high class, then they might give a __DEX__ boost, so I should be careful._

_3, 2, 1, 0!_

As soon as the timer hit zero, I… did nothing.

"One must attack if he wishes to win a duel," Heathcliff pointed out.

"I don't have to win; I just need to keep from losing. As long as we're not fighting, I'm not losing."

"So, in laymen's terms, you're scared," he said, tauntingly.

"You're annoying,"

I rushed in at full speed, sword already blazing into an uppercut. Heathcliff deflected the blow off his shield, and I used the momentum to make a follow-up strike. His hesitation was all I needed to start a vicious combo.

_Thrust, side cut, overhead strike, spinning slash, side cut-_

Heathcliff stood his ground.

_- Two handed down strike, uppercut, [[Slant]], dodge the incoming slash and counter -_

_Faster... FASTER!_

_- Side cut, thrust, left, right, diagonal strike, [[Horizontal]], uppercut, slash, slash, slashslashslashslash_ _-_

Finally, I noticed the glint in Heathcliff's eyes and stopped attacking. Realization shook me to the core.

Heathcliff's life hadn't even dropped by 10%.

He'd blocked every.

Single.

Hit.

_The heck? How is that even possible?! I have to analyze his battle patterns. I have to break through!_

_Left, right, diagonal, down, diagonal_

_He relies way too much on his shield, so if I use that new skill I just learned, I can throw his whole style off-balance._

I started charging it up, eager to see how well it worked. Its aura was invisible. It was perfect. He couldn't tell what I was doing at all.

"Do you plan on continuing? We can just end the duel now and call it a draw, if you wish," Heathcliff said smugly.

"Not a chance. You stepped on my pride, so I've got to prove myself," I said, irritated.

The skill finished charging, but the aura was still invisible. When I first learned it, it made a jolt when it finished charging, but that effect faded with repeated use.

"All right then, Kirito-kun. This time, I shall take the initiative. _En garde_!"

Heathcliff charged towards me, falling into my seemingly perfect plan. When he struck me with a Shield Bash, I was slightly caught off guard, but the skill still took effect, launching me into the air and onto the ceiling. I was unable to make the correct jump pattern, however, so I ended up flying straight into the wall behind me.

_Uh oh. Aw, why the heck not?_ I thought, kicking off of the wall. To my surprise, the system assist came back into effect, and I even increased in speed. _Note to self: multiple ricochets when using [[__Arc Slash__]] increases skill speed._

"What?" Heathcliff said, instinctively bringing up his shield to guard. _Big mistake, pal._

"RRAAGH!" I screamed in fury.

The system carried my body through the air, and as my sword connected with Heathcliff's shield an explosion of lightning and a loud metallic cracking sound could be heard. The shield shattered in a shower of polygons, catching the tall man off guard. I tried to use this chance to strike him, but he blocked with his long-sword._ That's right, he still has that sword, but we're on even ground now. Then again, he relied way too heavily on his shield for this to be a fair fight now._

After I jumped out of reach, Heathcliff said, "I'm impressed, Kirito-kun. You are very talented, indeed. It seems that I underestimated you. This will be a very interesting duel."

"But I just broke your shield!" _What the heck is wrong with this guy! He relies so heavily on his shield, and now that it's broken, he doesn't show any sign of caring at all!_

"But now we are on equal footing. It will be much more interesting this way."

"Screw it." I picked up speed, charging at him and activating another skill I recently learned; [[Vertical 360]], a somersaulting overhead strike. Jumping into the air, I delivered the skill perfectly, but the large man below me blocked it with ease. The force of the attack propelled me off his sword and onto the ground behind him, but he didn't even turn around. Landing gracefully, I turned around and looked at his HP bar.

_What?! He STILL hasn't even gone a quarter of the way down! That's the true strength of a tank, I guess. The amazing thing is that he's so good without a shield, even when it's a part of his build. I wonder how long he's spent leveling up. His __STR__ and __CON__ count must be through the roof!_

"Are you going to continue, Kirito-kun? I've been waiting patiently, but that patience is wearing thin."

"Well then, we'll just have to settle this. You see, I've been holding back." I said confidently.

_He's been too confident, ever since the start of the battle. It's almost like he knew all of my moves! I feel like this skill will catch him off guard, though._

"Oh, is that so? Then please, do show me everything you have." Heathcliff said, still keeping the same impassive look.

"Urusai."

I activated [[Chain Skill]], starting up with an [[Inch Slash]] - a one-handed version of [[Blink Cut]]. I blurred up to him, but he blocked it with his sword, and I caught the subtle widening of his eyes.

_So he doesn't know _all_ of my attacks. Good! I can break through!_

Forced back, I immediately ran back into action and performed a new skill I learned, [[Rapid Impaction]]. The skill initiated a devastatingly fast fifteen-hit combo.

_Up, left, down, diagonal strike, down center, thrust, down-_

Heathcliff seemed surprised, and was just barely able to block every strike that came his way. After the last slash, I regained control of my body and slashed upwards, knocking his sword into the air; yet, at the same time, he never let it go.

Then, I accidentally performed a skill that I thought would finish it regardless—the skill that almost got me killed. As [[Crimson Momentum]] began, my HP started dropping slowly.

_Diagonal, up, down, center-thrust, down-_

At the same time as the last hit of the combo was executed, being an upward slash, the one that would end this duel, my HP went into the yellow.

_I… lost?_ I turned around wanting to see my failure for myself, just as proof. To my surprise, the message said something I never expected to see again in my life.

[[Tie, Battle End!]]

_The hell?_

"And that settles it. We seem to be at equal strength, Kirito-kun," the man said with an icy glare.

_There's something very wrong. His voice sounds impressed to some extent, and yet the way he glared at me said that never in a million years did he expect to lose and he is extremely angry about it. It doesn't add up._

"I will admit defeat, seeing as you seemingly activated that skill by accident and yet still managed a tie. Neither of us shall speak of this as a tie, but will instead speak of this as your win. I trust that this is what you were hoping for, even if you didn't expect it," he said, finally smiling.

_Something's wrong with that smile. It's obviously fake, but what's really wrong is the reason behind his smile, let alone his actions. It just doesn't add up._

"I appreciate your kindness, but why? Why are you doing this? It doesn't make sense."

"You need to keep up your reputation as the strongest, that way we can face each other on different terms when we fight again. It makes for a much more entertaining scenario when I make a comeback to defeat you next time, does it not?"

_That smile seems sincere. He really is sure of his victory, isn't he?_

"I can't say I agree with anything you just said, but as thanks, I'll go along with it. Let's go, they're probably all lost deep in the cave by this point."

We looked over every inch the cave for what seemed like hours, finding absolutely nothing.

Heathcliff broke the silence. "They probably decided to stay together, despite their seemingly intense hatred for each other. You most likely friended at least one of your group, so we might find them by tracing him or her. After all, there's always the possibility of a field boss spawning, even in an almost vacant cave like this.

_What he just said doesn't sit right with me… WAIT!_

"[[The Kraken's Crab]]! I have to check their location!"

I pulled up the in-game menu, brought up the friends list, touched Asuna's name, and hit trace. "NO!"

Asuna was exactly where the field boss spawned, and this field boss had another special ability that would panic unsuspecting players, leaving them as easy prey. When it's defeated without cutting a certain area, it _multiplies_.

I ran as fast as I could, not caring if Heathcliff followed me or not. I _had_ to save them.

* * *

When I got to the alcove where the field boss spawned, my fears were confirmed. The entirety of Kibaou's group was either knocked out or struggling just to sit up, HP bars left with less than five percent. My group, however, was completely surrounded by more than fifteen of the crustacean fiends._ So they're that good? Ironic; that makes it really bad in this case._

"Rita! Cirdan! Asuna! Aim for their eyes! You have to hit all of their eyes in the same attack to beat them!" I exclaimed.

"Got it!" one of them shouted back.

Running over to them at full speed, I lopped one of the field bosses in half with a powerful sword skill, going through all eight eyes at once, and then slashing down. Thousands of polygons scattered in every direction. I destroyed the field boss in one hit. Rita and Cirdan seemed to be holding their own very well, destroying a few of the fiends here and there. Asuna, however, was struggling to switch between dodging the multitude of field bosses and attacking their eyes.

Then it clicked. _Asuna's weapon isn't meant for slashing, and you have to slash through all the eyes in the same strike! This is really bad!_

"Asuna! Move, now! I'll take over!"

"What? WAAH!" She had turned her back to one of the field bosses while talking to me, and I saw it slash her in the back with one of its scythe-like pincers.

"_Arigatou, sayonara."_

And that was all it took. My vision turned to a clear red, and I couldn't think straight.

"RRAAAAAGH! Urusai, urusai, URUSAI!" I screamed in rage, destroying anything in sight. If it couldn't be destroyed in one hit, I moved on to the next, and the next, and the next, until I could only see pure rubble. A few times, I thought I heard the sound of metal clashing, but I didn't care.

Three human-shaped beings came into my line of sight, all of which seemed to be threats even with my clouded eyes. I charged.

These _things_ were considerably harder to beat than the field bosses I had been fighting before. They had their own weapons and were able to use them to block my strikes, though I could tell that they were wearing down.

"_Please Kirito, stop this now!"_ exclaimed one of the three, his loud voice hurting my ears which were on overdrive due to whatever had come over me.

"URUSAI, URUSAI, URUSAI!" I screamed. My sword knocked his cleaver-like weapon into the air and it landed on the ground behind him.

Just before I was about to land a fatal combo, someone, seemingly female, appeared in front of him blindingly fast, and blocked it with her katana.

"_Kirito! STOP!"_ The female yelled, damaging my ears even more than the man with the cleaver.

"URUSAI, URUSAI!Get away! I haven't finished him yet! I'll get to you next, so please wait!" I yelled, a sadistic smirk appearing on my face near the end.

"_Kirito-kun! Please, just stop! You'll kill your friends!"_ said a female voice behind me.

_Friends? What friends? I don't have any—_

_Bu-bump._

Images of Asuna appeared before me. Then, Cirdan and Rita started to surface in the images. A pair of arms wrapped around me from behind, snapping me out of my deep rage. I looked at my HP bar and noticed that I had the [[Bleeding]] status condition with my remaining life rapidly draining out. Just before my HP drained to zero, the [[Bleeding]] condition disappeared, leaving me with a mere 3 HP out of 1550. I looked at Cirdan's HP bar and noticed that he was in the red as well.

I surveyed our surroundings, finding nothing but rubble and two level-up signs, both addressed to me.

"What happened? Where are Kibaou and his group?" I said drowsily.

"I evacuated them out safely when you started decimating those giant crabs. What _were_ those, anyway?" Rita inquired nervously.

"Those were field bosses, [[Kraken's Crabs]]. They multiply when you kill them without hitting all of their eyes in one slash. That slash _has_ to be a one-hit-kill; otherwise, you'll never be able to kill them." I blinked, "Wait, did _I_ do all that? Then…did I attack you guys?"

"Yeah, you did."

**A/N:**

**Finally, a chapter that doesn't have some kind of cliffhanger, to some extent.**

**I'm not going to make my author's note very long as there isn't much of a reason to.**

**I will explain three things:**

**One is that those Crabs aren't meant to be strong; their special ability (Multiplying) just makes them terrifying to people who don't know how to kill them.**

**Second, I'll explain what 'urusai' means for those of you who don't know. Urusai is Japanese for, "shut up," or, "you're loud," depending on the context/translation. I of course am using it as "shut up."**

**And third, you might wonder what happened to Kirito. It's a system error that happens whenever one of the champions goes into an extreme rage: [[Blood Rage]].**

**May happiness be with you,**

**OMG**


	7. Chapter 7: Error: 6b697269746f's 7472617

Chapter Seven

Error: 6b697269746f's 747261756d61

* * *

_Images of Asuna appeared before me. Then, Cirdan and Rita started to surface in the images. A pair of arms wrapped around me from behind, snapping me out of my deep rage. I looked at my HP bar and noticed that I had the [[Bleeding]] status condition with my remaining life rapidly draining out. Just before my HP drained to zero, the [[Bleeding]] condition disappeared, leaving me with a mere 3 HP out of 1550. I looked at Cirdan's HP bar and noticed that he was in the red as well._

_I surveyed our surroundings, finding nothing but rubble and two level-up signs, both addressed to me._

_"What happened? Where are Kibaou and his group?" I said drowsily._

_"I evacuated them out safely when you started decimating those giant crabs. What _were _those, anyway?" Rita inquired nervously._

_"Those were field bosses, [[Kraken's Crabs]]. They multiply when you kill them without hitting all of their eyes in one slash. That slash _has _to be a one-hit-kill; otherwise, you'll never be able to kill them." I blinked, "Wait, did_ I _do all that? Then…did I attack you guys?"_

_"Yeah, you did."_

* * *

"Yeah, you did," Cirdan said bluntly.

"I personally don't think it was your fault, though. You seemed to be in some sort of blood rage, and the look in your eyes said that you weren't even conscious. It's like you just _snapped_ when you saw Asuna get hurt," Cirdan confirmed my suspicions.

_Asuna is too important to me._

"The weird thing is that you didn't attack her even once while in that state. I wish you would snap for me some time," Rita teased, mock pouting.

"So, we're the only ones here, right? We'd better get out of here before one respawns." I said, trying to get out of Asuna's grip.

"No, not until you're healed!" Asuna said firmly.

"Well, would you look at that, he's healing on his own! What the heck, man, where did you get that?" Cirdan asked, noticing my [[Battle Healing]] skill as it took effect.

"My [[Battle Healing]] skill. I've been leveling it up by mapping out the boss dungeon, constantly putting myself at risk of death…right now it regenerates 320 HP every ten seconds. I should be fine, I'm more worried about you guys."

"I have [[Battle Healing]] myself, so I'll be fine, don't worry. As for those two, Rita's probably fine, and… Asuna, was it? Anyway, she's been in the red ever since she got struck by one of the [[Kraken's Crabs]]."

"Asuna, that's right! Are you okay?" I inquired.

"I'm fine, Kirito-kun. I'll just have a potion," Asuna said reassuringly.

"I must have missed something."

_Heathcliff. I forgot about him. It's a good thing he didn't see what happened. I feel like something terrible would happen if he did._

"Heathcliff, why didn't you get here sooner? Seriously, you left all the fighting to us! Well, really just to Kirito," Rita exclaimed, annoyed.

"So you were holding back more than I thought. Well, I will take my leave," Heathcliff said, walking away from the alcove filled with blood.

_Wait, blood?_

"Does anyone _else_ see the blood on the ground everywhere?" I asked nervously.

_If this game is simulating blood now, then it might freak out the clearing party, deterring them from trying to beat the game. This is bad._

"Well, all the blood came from you. Even when we got struck, no blood came out. I think it was just your skill," Cirdan said contemplatively.

"That was no skill. That was a system error." _I have no idea how, but I know that this would never be a skill._

"Well, whatever it is, I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it again." Cirdan said harshly.

"I agree."

Coming out of the cave, I remembered why we went there in the first place. "Cirdan, we need to go. I'm fully healed, so I'll be fine. Girls, this is where we part ways."

"What?! But Kirito-kun—" Asuna started frantically.

"Don't worry, he'll be okay. He _is_ Kirito, after all," Rita said gently, putting a soothing hand on Asuna's shoulder.

Cirdan started dragging me down the trail that lead to the NPC that gave out the Phibbius quest, saying, "See you girls later! We've got a few quests just waiting to be completed."

"O-one more thing!" Asuna started. "Who won?"

As Cirdan stopped dragging me, I smirked. My answer left Asuna fuming and Cirdan snickering.

"It's a secret."

* * *

As we neared the quest house, Cirdan started asking questions that I had hoped would go unasked.

"So, seriously, who won?"

"Well… okay, I'll tell you. He wanted me to say that I won, but that wasn't the case." I said, though immediately interrupted.

"YOU LOST?!"

"No, I…tied," I whispered in his ear.

"That's my Kirito, never a single loss!"

"Would you keep it down? There's someone here," I whispered.

_Whoever is following us, they're doing a pretty good job. Somehow, Cirdan can't sense them, and he_ always _had the ability to sense things like that. Wait a second, that's—_ "Kamiko, what are you doing?"

A red-eyed rabbit jumped through the brush in front of me, running for dear life. Suddenly, a throwing pick lodged in the rabbit's throat, shattering it into hundreds of polygons, as it was too small to hit the thousand mark.

Kamiko said angrily, "You almost let it get away from me, you little—" Then, embarrassed, Kamiko said, "—Kiri-kun? Sorry about yelling at you. I've been trying to get ingredients for our dinner tonight."

"It's fine. Anyway, isn't that the rare rabbit that gives A-rank ingredients or higher?" I inquired.

"Yeah, but it looks like I only got a A-rank, sadly. Anyway, what are you guys doing here? I don't suppose you're just enjoying the scenery," Kamiko said, with a dark glint in her eyes.

_Oh, Kami-sama, she knows what we were doing! Hopefully, Cirdan won't—_

"We were completing the Phibbius quest. We already defeated him, so we're going to collect the reward right now."

"Cirdan you baka—"

"YOU DID WHAT?! You seriously took on a boss on your own?! Are you guys CRAZY?!" Kamiko screamed at us.

In the beta, she wouldn't let me go into any boss fights without at least two other people. That is, until we were the only ones still on the front lines because we started moving too fast for the others to keep up.

"Calm down. We're fine, See? Never in a million years would any of us die."

_Lies. I know I'll die eventually. I can't say that to anyone._

* * *

After picking up the quest reward, Cirdan, Kamiko and I headed to the NPC that gave out the [[Touch of Gold]] quest. With our combined rewards from the Phibbius quest, we had just enough Col to complete it and earn Cirdan the reward.

"So, you got [[Battle Healing]], huh? How high did you level it?" Cirdan asked nonchalantly.

"Around 540 out of 1000, why? Wait, don't tell me…" I started, trailing off in shock.

"I just maxed it last week!"

"_How high is your [[__Cooking Skill__]]?" I said._

_Please be high enough, please be high enough, PLEASE be high enough to cook—_

"_I just maxed it last week!" Asuna said proudly._

"… Kirito, hey, Kirito!" Cirdan said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"W-wha…? Oh, Cirdan! What happened? Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone except you. Seriously, you just spaced out on us! You looked like you were dying of hunger and were about to cry at the same time."

"I-I'm fine, just remembering something sad. It's gone now, so I'll be fine."

_What the heck was that?_

"Are you sure you're okay?" Kamiko asked, receiving a nod in return. "All right, then."

"Well, we're here," I said with a small smile, relieved that I wouldn't be the center of attention anymore.

* * *

The NPC was a middle-aged man living out in the woods, trying unsuccessfully to make it big in the farming industry. He needed the money because his daughter recently contracted a deadly illness. He had already bought the expensive medicine required to cure it, and the medicine was to be delivered by horse. He needed to pay the deliveryman on arrival but he didn't have enough money. The medicine cost eighty five thousand Col, and we gave him eighty thousand. The NPC said he'd pay the rest.

As Cirdan started conversing with the NPC to complete the quest, I took the liberty to PM Argo about the quest boss.

"_Argo, I need you to spread the word about something. Don't ask for anything in return, because I think enabling you to save hundreds of lives is good enough. Here is the message I want you to spread:_

"_There is a quest boss, known as [[__Phibbius the Frog King__]], and neither he nor his cave are to be approached. He nearly took out the [[__Black Beater__]], and was only defeated by sheer luck. There is also a field boss in this cave, known as the [[__Kraken's Crab__]], that nearly took out half of the clearing party as well as heavily injuring the [[__Black Beater__]] and his party."_

_Thanks,_

_-Kirito"_

I never in a million years would've expected her to reply in less than ten seconds, yet somehow she did.

_That's impossible! How the HECK is she able to type that fast?!_

What I read next truly shocked me.

"_I was actually in the middle of typing you a message asking about what happened in that cave. (Asuna said something about it, but I wanted to hear it from you.) Anyway, I'll still do it, but I want a full description of the battles you went through. I don't want this as payment, but as a friend who's concerned for her best friend in the WHOLE world of SAO!_

_-Argo"_

I furiously typed out a reply, begrudgingly retelling everything I could remember. Of course, I left out the part about the field boss, seeing as I can't remember much of anything about it, and I left out the duel I had with Heathcliff.

* * *

A few hours later, we were back at my house, about to part ways.

_I don't want to be alone with Kamiko right now. She might kill me for fighting the quest boss almost solo. What should I do? …Aha!_

Calmly, I said, "Hey Cirdan, would you like to stay at my place for a while?" giving Cirdan a pleading look that got the meaning across very well, judging by the look in his eyes.

"Why me, and not the girls?" he said, trying to push out a cover-up reason from me to avoid suspicion.

"Because girls take really long baths. Plus, if one comes, they _all_ come. I only have two beds and a couch, you know." I replied, giving him a look that said more needed to be talked about.

"All right, thanks!"

By the time we had finished dinner, I had finished formulating what to say to Cirdan.

_This is gonna be hard._

"Well, that was satisfying. I'm gonna go take a bath," Kamiko said happily, walking off.

"All right Cirdan, I need your help. Since you're the only strong player in this game who I can rely on for this, I need _you_ to do it," I said.

Taking a deep breath, I continued. "When the clearing group gets to the second floor boss room entrance, I want you to make sure that no one enters the boss room for five minutes. In that time, I'll go in by myself and see what kind of boss it is. I'm not sure if they've changed the bosses entirely, or if they just changed things like weapons and attack patterns, so I want to analyze everything _before_ everyone else gets into trouble. When five minutes have passed, you can let everyone in and I'll tell them everything they need to know to beat it. I'll PM you if I figure out the base patterns sooner. If I'm not anywhere around the room after you guys get in there, then I'll probably be dead. If that is the case, then I want you to lead them to victory."

"You're insane, you know that? But you've saved my butt twice in the past day alone, so I owe you. But I swear, if you die on me, I will _never_ forgive you," Cirdan said.

"Who're you talking to? Anyway, thanks." I brought up my fist and he met it with his own.

_I probably_ will _die, with my new fear. Even so, on the off chance that I live, I don't want anyone else's life to vanish like Diabel's. Not now, not ever again._

* * *

When I woke up on my shared bed with Kamiko the next morning, I realized something.

_I made it through the night without Kamiko trying to kill me! YES! Wait, how did she get into my bed?_

When I got downstairs to the living area, Cirdan immediately blasted me with a question that made my blood run cold.

"Hey Kirito, want to go questing?"

* * *

I was on edge. We walked through the woods, my senses on overdrive the whole way. I jumped like a coward every time a mob spawned, the previous day's events still fresh in my mind.

I wasn't scared of the mobs. I was scared of myself.

"Relax. We're only going to do that [[Iron Man]] quest, so it'll be fine. No one will be in any danger," Cirdan said, reassuring me.

"You know me well, Cirdan."

_But not well enough. That wasn't the point._

The [[Iron Man]] quest was a particularly hard one to complete. You had to get hit twenty-five times without your HP falling into the yellow zone. In the beta, I failed _miserably_.

Cirdan was the only player I knew in the beta who didn't humiliate himself trying to complete that quest, and I knew a _lot_ of players in the beta.

"Well, I'm off to do the quest. You can wait for me in the shopping district," Cirdan said.

His perceptiveness surprised me. _How did he know? I never_ told _him that I can't watch people using weapons anymore. Maybe he knows me a little_ too _well._

After the incident one day prior, I had been left severely traumatized. Weapons now scared me. I knew that I had to use them to survive, but I had hurt people with them. I had almost _killed_ someone. I didn't even want to _see_ a weapon, let alone _use_ one. And yet I _still_ intended to overcome my fear and be the first to enter the boss room. I didn't want anyone to get killed fighting the boss, but to stop this, I had to put my own life on the line.

* * *

The shopping district did nothing to ease my stress. I had gotten lost in the weapons half of the district. That's right. _Half_ of the entire shopping district of [[Ciudad Tercera]] had been filled with NPCs selling _weapons_.

_This is torture! Why did this have to happen to me?_

"Hey, Ki-Bou! How's it going? I'm loving the claws you got me," Argo said, appearing out of nowhere, waving at me with clawed hands.

"AAH!" I screamed frantically.

_Even being near harmless weapons like claws scare me now!? I'm hopeless._

"The heck was that? Are you okay, Ki-Bou?"

"I'm fine…I'm fine," I said, taking a deep breath.

"Here, why don't we go somewhere and chat. You know, see what's wrong? I'm genuinely concerned about you sometimes, you know."

_Something's up with her. She's never this nice._

* * *

We were at the inn in which she stayed during the time she wasn't out brokering. When we got there, she immediately started with, "Okay, just tell me what's up. Right. Now."

"*sigh*, all right. There were some things I didn't tell you yesterday."

"Such as…?"

"After we beat the quest boss, Kibaou and his group showed up, trying to get into the very room that we almost died in. We started arguing. Then, a large muscular man with red-tinted leather armor appeared, saying they should be able to do what they want, even if it was stupid. Then I got into an argument with _him_, and we decided to settle it with a duel."

"That doesn't explain why you seem to be afraid of weapons," Argo said, annoyed.

"I'm not done yet. As I was saying, we went to a secluded area so no one could watch us fight. After a very close battle, I just barely won. We spent a long time searching for everyone we left behind, but we couldn't find them anywhere. Then, he said something that reminded me of the field boss that lived in the cave."

"You mean the [[Kraken's Crabs]]? The ones that multiply? Wow. So you're saying that they were…"

"Yeah… Kibaou's entire group was knocked out cold, but none died, miraculously. My friends were surrounded by more than fifteen of the beasts. I told them the beasts' weakness was their eyes, and they did fairly well, save for Asuna," I continued.

"Yeah, her weapon is a pierce-type, isn't it? Anyway, what happened next?"

"She…got struck. She almost died. Before she fell to the ground, she said two words. Those two words have been driving me insane since the first time I heard them, and I don't know why. 'Arigatou, Sayonara.' I don't get it, but every time I hear it, something inside me snaps, and I see a girl's face.

"Ooh, is it true love?"

_Just ignore her, just ignore her._

"After that, I just remember my vision turning red, and things happening that I still can't make much sense of. I…I just remember killing things that looked like monsters, hearing the sounds of blades clashing, and…" It suddenly got hard to continue.

"And…?" Argo could sense my discomfort.

"Three humanoid beings came into my line of sight. I started fighting them. One of them yelled at me, which sounded like a jet engine to my ears, which were hypersensitive at the time due to whatever came over me. So I targeted the being—whom I later found out was Cirdan—knocked his weapon into the air, and started a combo that would've probably been fatal. But another one blocked the combo with her katana, and yelled at me like Cirdan had, so I started to fight her. She turned out to be Rita, Aria's sister.

"Before I could land a hit, the third one grabbed me from behind, snapping me out of my rage. That was obviously Asuna, as she was the only one left with me.

"I… I almost killed them. I was almost a murderer. I… can't be around weapons right now. They can be used to kill someone." I finished, taking deep breaths.

_I'm about to cry. I can't cry in front of Argo, she'll spread the news._

"It's okay, Kirito. You'll be fine. I'm not very good at things like this, but I can try to comfort you."

"Argo…" _Thanks, Argo._

"Well, that was quite the story, Kirito."

I looked up to find a tall, red-haired man with a rugged face and red armor.

"… Klein…how long have you been here?" I asked dully.

_Why…? Just why?_

"Since the [[Kraken's Crabs]]. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but come on! You're the strongest man in the whole of SAO! You can't quit n—"

"I'M NOT QUITTING! I need some time to get over it, that's all." I was livid. I saw a tiny hint of red in my vision.

My breath hitched.

"It…it happened again. I saw red. Why me…?"

"Whoa, that's crazy! We have to help you learn to control it. I don't wanna be on the receiving end of your rage," Klein said.

_What an idiot. I'm in emotional trauma here, and he wants to make me fight the source head on? Wait… that could be a good idea if we structure it right._

"All right. I'll take you up on that. We'll beat this fear out of me, and at the same time, I'll learn to control my rage. Bring it on, Klein."

* * *

**A/N: Important!**

**Sorry about the wait. Now I'll take the liberty to address some of the issues people have found with this fic.**

**#1: Kirito is NOT as overpowered as some of you think he is. If you want to see overpowered, you should take a look at the main character (the blond one) from the anime "Problem Children are Coming from Another World, Aren't They?" Kirito isn't a man of steel. He has his flaws, and his soul can be hurt, just like anyone else's (which has been shown in my fic AND in the show).**

**#2: Yes, the [[Blood Rage]] made Kirito seem a little OOC, but that's the point. He's supposed to lose sight of himself when in that state. With the whole "Urusai" thing, ALL of his senses become heightened to extreme levels, (Except for physical pain) so his sense of hearing was too high for him to appropriately handle someone yelling at him.**

**#3: (This isn't a significant issue, but I still want to address it.) Some people want a harem and some don't. I got kinda confused, and that led me to this idea:**

**Once I get to the Sachi arc (or the Black Cats arc, whichever you prefer to call it), I'm going to split the storyline up into three different paths.**

**-Path One: The regular (Kirisuna) path, which will be continued under the original title.**

**-Path Two: The Sachi path, which will focus on the relationship between Kirito and Sachi as the second genre, instead of focusing on Kirisuna. This storyline will be called Black Cats Revival, or BCR.**

**-Path Three: The Harem path. I haven't forgotten you harem lovers out there! You know who you are. (Pretty obvious what this storyline's second genre is about.)**

**All the paths will follow the same general storyline. The biggest difference among them will be the pairings.**

**Also, let me know in a PM if you want me to start working on the harem path early (the Sachi path has to start at the Sachi arc for obvious reasons), since that path can branch out at any point (meaning almost ANY chapter).**

**And finally, about this chapter's title. I translated some text into hex values, and used the translation as the title! (Hex values are the same codes that an action replay uses to hack Nintendo gaming systems. I'm not sure if AR uses the same codes universally.) The translated title adds to the whole "ERROR" feel, doesn't it? If you're interested in finding out what it means, then take out the apostrophe s and the space, ant then put the number 20 in and enter it into a hex-to-text converter.**

**PS: I now have a Facebook page! Check it out for story updates. My profile name is "Null's Fanfiction."**

**Now I get to say my parting phrase for the first time in forever! Yay!**

**May happiness be with you,**

**OMG**


	8. Chapter 8: Error: 44616d6167656420537069

Chapter Eight

Error: 44616d6167656420537069726974

_"I'M NOT QUITTING! I need some time to get over it, that's all." I was livid. I saw a tiny hint of red in my vision._

_My breath hitched._

_"It…it happened again. I saw red. Why me…?"_

_"Whoa, that's crazy! We have to help you learn to control it. I don't wanna be on the receiving end of your rage," Klein said._

**_What an idiot. I'm in emotional trauma here, and he wants to make me fight the source head on? Wait… that could be a good idea if we structure it right._**

_"All right. I'll take you up on that. We'll beat this fear out of me, and at the same time, I'll learn to control my rage. Bring it on, Klein."_

* * *

It's been three days now.

We tried over and over to get me comfortable around weapons, to no avail.

"Kirito, I think that it'd be best for you to just duel someone. Then you wouldn't be able to run away." Klein said, sounding foolish.

"Are you an idiot? It's obviously a bad idea to fight it like that. Just look at our poor Ki-Bou," Argo chastised.

"I'm not helpless, Argo," I grumbled.

"Oh, is that so? Then how about you take on one of us?" Cirdan asked, already plotting how to achieve his victory.

The only other people who knew about my… problem… were Klein, Cirdan and Argo, two of whom were hell-bent on getting me better regardless of the methods that were used.

* * *

We were currently walking through the shopping district of [[Ciudad Tercera]], looking for a new weapon for Klein. He had been battling Cirdan in all their free time. Klein still couldn't match Cirdan's strength, but had sorely outclassed him in speed, thus making them tie the majority of the time.

They were arguing. I just ignored them and let Argo lead the way. When we got to our destination, my blood ran cold.

There, in the weapons district, stood a girl with long white hair—with the tiniest hint of pink—pulled back in a braided ponytail. She had vibrant blue eyes and appeared to be trying to sell an abundance of rare weapon drops obtained from item farming, just as she did biweekly in the beta.

There, in all her radiant glory, stood Aria, Rita's older sister.

_I just know that girl is Aria. But she's smiling! That's impossible!_

Walking over to us, she said, "Hey, you guys look strong. You wouldn't happen to have seen another girl that looks exactly like me, but with red eyes and her hair down, would you?"

"That depends, how much are you willing to pay to find out?" Argo inquired mischievously.

"Here," Aria replied curtly, materializing a sack filled with Col and tossing it to Argo.

"All right, here we go. I've never seen her before in my life."

"Why you—"

"Relax, relax. I'll answer you if you can answer my question. Did she have oversized cloth armor that was always falling off of her?" Cirdan inquired.

"Ye-yeah. That was my sister, Rita. My name's Aria, nice to meet you all," Aria said happily.

"My name's Cirdan. Everybody, introduce yourselves," Cirdan matched her happiness.

"K-Klein." _Is Klein… blushing?_

"Argo, the best Information Broker around, at your service!"

Everyone looked at me.

_If I tell her who I am, then she'll hate me. If she hates me, then when she realizes they're all my friends, then she'll hate them too._

My fear becoming insignificant in comparison to the fear induced by their stares, I finally relented.

"Ki-Kirito."

"Kirito? So you're… you're the Kiri-chi I know from the beta?" Aria inquired, stunned.

"Yeah…"

_I'm screwed._

"OHMYGOD you're so CUTE!" she exclaimed. She then proceeded to run over and sling her arm around my shoulder.

_The heck?! This isn't her _at all_!_

"Look, I don't like this either, but this Cirdan guy is really cool, and I don't want my chances with him ruined just because of an idiot like you, so play along, okay?" she whispered in my ear.

_And _there_ it is. The old Aria is back._

"T-thanks… I guess?" I stuttered out, still having trouble digesting that Aria could ever fall for someone.

"Whoa, check it out; the ever-calm Kirito is blushing! Go Sis!" A girl said from behind me.

"R-Rita? This isn't what it looks like!" I said before turning around.

When I did turn around, I found, much to my chagrin, that Rita wasn't the only one watching. Asuna was watching as well, along with half of the weapons district.

"Okay, first of all, he's not always calm. You both saw what happened," Cirdan… well, sort of… came to my defense… in an insulting way.

"What's he talking about?" Aria asked with genuine innocence, a rare scene to see.

"I'll tell you about it when we get home."

"Waitwaitwait! You have a HOUSE?!"

* * *

It was nightfall by the time we got to my house, and no one was around. The people from outside the beta feared leaving the inns at night, for reasons I'll never understand.

"Here we are," I said, pointing to my prince house.

"It looks perfectly normal though," said three female voices, belonging to Asuna, Aria and Rita, in unison.

_I forgot, it does look normal on the outside._

"You should see the inside. The reason it looks normal on the outside is because it's based around a [[Chain Quest]] that you need to complete to get it. Most of it is underground to draw less suspicion."

"What kind of chain quest _was _it?" Asuna inquired.

"Helping a kid running from the law," Cirdan said, a little too enthusiastically.

"Cirdan! Not in front of the kids!" Argo scolded Cirdan.

"What? It was!" Cirdan shot back.

"Yeah, it was." I confirmed.

* * *

(Aria)

I wasn't sure whether to be super impressed that Kirito got the house, or super pissed that he got it first.

Y'see, Kirito and I had this rivalry going on back in our beta days, and he would always end up beating me to the prize. At first we were just competitive friends, but as he continued to outclass me, my competitive friendship towards him turned into mild irritation every time he beat me. The irritation grew and grew, until finally, I started to hate him.

As we walked in to the house, it seemed to be a pretty normal room. However, as we walked toward the west side, I noticed a small set of stairs leading underground.

_Doesn't look like they were lying so far…_

"Now just follow me down these stairs. You'll see a real wonder, lemme tell you." Cirdan said in his oh-so _manly_ voice.

_Haaah… his voice is so _nice_, I could just listen to it forever and ever._

"What the heck was _that_?" Kirito whispered tensely in my ear. He looked fairly disgusted.

_Oh shit._

"Did I say that out loud?" I whispered, appalled.

"Yeah. No one but me heard it, though. They're all downstairs. You just kind of stood there like a lovesick schoolgirl while everyone else left," Kirito half-smirked, half-grimaced.

"Just rub it in, why don't you. Wait… was it that obvious?" I asked edgily.

"Well, I seemed to be the only one who noticed. That and the fact that no one else was here when you voiced your thoughts like an idiot," Kirito said, starting to crack up near the end.

"I _would_ challenge you to a duel, but you're way too afraid to even _try_, apparently," I shot back, noticing him flinch _very_ visibly.

It was all too obvious. He was too terrified of weapons to be of any use in clearing this stupid death game.

"You know what? I'll fight you, just to prove you wrong. Let's go outside, Aria."

Too speechless to even come up with something to say, I merely followed him outside.

_Is he really doing this? Is he truly going to follow through with this challenge?_

"You're thinking out loud again."

"Right. Okay, let's go, Kiri-chi," I said, pulling up a duel invitation and sending it to Kirito.

* * *

(Kirito)

"Right. Okay, let's go, Kiri-chi," Aria said, pulling up a duel invitation and sending it to me.

_What an annoying girl. Wait, what have I gotten myself into now? Well, I won't back down to Aria. No, I _can't_ back down to Aria. My pride is at stake here and I'm _not_ losing it._

I chose [[First Strike]]and touched the Accept button.

As the clock counted down, I started to manipulate my menu to try to find my sword, the [[Anneal Blade]].

When I found it, my hand started shaking, hovering above the equip button in fear.

_Can I really handle this? I'm really not sure anymore. But I have no choice. I _have_ to do this._

I pressed the button and my sword materialized, falling gently into my right hand, light as a feather due to my focusing my stat points mostly on strength and dexterity.

When I looked up, I noticed that Aria had equipped a one-handed claw on her left hand, and a short-sword in her right. _Damn, this'll be hard to deal with. A short-sword _and_ a claw sub-weapon? This doesn't look good._

As the timer counted down, we both tensed up, our battle reflexes starting to kick in to ready us for the fight.

_Three, two, one…_

Aria smirked cockily.

_GO!_

She charged with incredible speed, and in my traumatized state I barely had the time to block, let alone counter.

_Damn it! I could've countered it if I weren't so afraid! I've got to get over this stupid frickin' fear!_

I started to move faster, somehow obeying my own orders.

_Left, right, diagonal up, down-_

_CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!_

Any attacks that didn't get dodged were blocked in loud clashes, resulting in showers of sparks flying everywhere.

_Diagonal up, down, left, dodge, right, parry, up-_

I suddenly realized something game-changing. _She hasn't been using her claws at all, which means…_

"Your claws are (Crimson) class, aren't they? Come on, show me your claws' power, Aria!" I yelled over the deafening sound of our clashing blades.

"If you say so, Kiri-chi!"

_She fell for the taunt!_

Her claws began glowing white.

"[[Force Swipe]]!"

Just barely dodged.

_The heck? That skill is supposed to increase speed, but she got slower, and her attack strength felt stronger! Wait, I get it now! The [[__Crimson Effect__]] of her claws increases attack, but lowers speed! That has to be it!_

"Perfect," I muttered.

She backed off, saying, "Wait, what—"

"It's time to END this!"

"I couldn't agree more, Kiri-chi!"

_Damn annoying girl!_

"[[Anneal Driver]]!"

"[[Mad Gash]]!"

[[Driver]]—a three-hit combo - has varying effects, power, and speed, depending on the weapon used. My [[Anneal Blade]] version gave slightly increased speed, moderately increased attack, and slightly lowered defense, with its effect being a 100% weapon knockback chance.

[[Mad Gash]]—the fifth strongest out of seven hundred claw skills thus far in the world of SAO. It's a one-hit strike, but it's _extremely_ powerful.

_Right-_

I blocked her skill, knocking her clawed hand to the side.

_Left-_

I hit her sword out of her right hand.

As I started to deliver the final blow and end the duel, I stopped, my blade just inches away from slashing through her chest.

_I just can't do this!_ I thought to myself. _"But we HAVE to! She stepped on our pride, so we have to prove her wrong!"_ another voice in my head shot back, taking the role of defending our honor and pride.

_Like I have any…_

"Tch. You hesitated, Kiri-chi. Bad move," Aria sneered, wasting no time to go back to the offensive.

She tried to slash at me with her claws. I barely evaded.

_Close call. But how can I expect to be of any use on the front lines if I can't even follow through with the final blow of a harmless duel? Aria was right, I'm of no use on the front lines now._

"Kirito-kun!" _Asuna…_

"Kiri-kun!" _Kamiko…_

"Kirito! Don't hesitate, just use your instincts! FIGHT!" _Cirdan…_

"Ki-Bou, you better not lose!" _Argo…_

"Kirito, don't you _dare_ lose to her! Don't you DARE!" _Klein…_

_They're right, I can't give up hope! I've got to WIN!_

"KURAAAGH!" I screamed in fury.

We started back up, clashing, clashing, and clashing some more.

_Right, left, diagonal up, down, thrust, spin-_

All deflected by her claws in a shower of sparks.

_Swipe up, swipe diagonal down, swipe right, swipe diagonal up-_

All blocked by my sword.

We eventually tired of the useless clashing that comprised the fight so far, and proceeded to use Sword Skills.

"[[COMET SLASH]]! KEURAAAEH!" I screamed, red encroaching in on my vision.

_NO!_

_"Whoa, that's crazy! We have to help you learn to control it. I don't wanna be on the receiving end of your rage," Klein said._

_That's right! If I want to get over it, I have to learn to control it!_

The skill made contact… with her claws.

I jumped back quickly.

The sound of an item shattering crashed loudly in the air.

I had broken her claws.

Aria ran towards her sword and scrambled to pick it up. Right as she grabbed hold of it, I had my sword to her neck from behind, snarling, "If you surrender, I'll stop. If you don't, I'll make this as painful as possible for you, Aria."

"You're bluffing! There's _no way_ you could've gotten over it so fast," Aria said confidently.

"If you say so, Aria. It looks like it's over," I said smugly, my vision still slightly red.

I pulled back.

"See, I knew you were bluff— AAGH!"

I slashed her in the back.

I made a clean hit.

Her health dropped to the yellow.

I won the duel.

"Whoa, that hurt like freaking CRAZY! What kind of in-game steroids are you taking, Kiri-chi?" Aria queried agitatedly.

I smirked.

"None. I don't like to brag, but it's just that my strength and dexterity are through the roof, and I'm level thirty," I boasted.

"So what, I'm level thirty as well. Levels don't matter much to me, it's all about speed, skill, reaction time and mindset."

_Wait, what? Her as well? That's insane, someone else is level thirty this early in the game?!_

Her words slowly repeated in my mind. Suddenly, memories of voices flooded into my consciousness.

_"Splendid reaction time,"_ I heard someone say.

_"And that shield of yours is too strong,"_ I replied.

I felt my memories skip further into the future.

_"Dual Wield is given only to the player with the fastest reaction time."_ The same voice said.

The memories stopped coming.

_What _was_ that? I know I've heard that voice before, but I can't place it. Who could it be?_

"Kirito! Snap out of it!" Klein said, his words doing their intended purpose.

"Okay, what the _heck_ were you thinking about?" Cirdan said, annoyed.

"Don't worry, it's nothing. Is Aria okay?" I queried.

"Ugh, I'm fine," Aria said, giving me a glare. _I'm familiar with that glare._

That particular glare said 'I'll kill you in your sleep, you jerk'.

I shivered, suddenly terrified.

"Anyway, that was an awesome fight! You guys were perfectly even for most of the duel!" Klein said earnestly.

"Yeah, but I still lost," Aria pouted.

"The reason you lost is because you chose to use claws that lowered your speed. The point of using claws is that they're lighter, so they let you move faster. Your (Crimson) class claws may have boosted your attack power, but at the same time they lowered your speed, defeating the purpose of using claws in the first place.

"On top of that, you chose to use a one-handed sword as your main weapon, negating the other advantage of claws, which is versatility. It may _look_ intimidating, but once I noticed the flaws in your movements, which were _increased_ by your weapon choice, I was able to block and counter a _lot_ easier.

"One last thing. Though you're the same level as I am, and your raw skill is as good as mine, I have _no doubt_ that you distributed your stat points evenly, which is a _very_ bad move. You need to distribute your stat points in the way that would fit your weapon build the most efficiently."

"… Wow, Kirito, I didn't know you had so much knowledge about _all_ the weapons in the game," Cirdan said, bewildered.

"I'm an MMO veteran. I think that explains it. Now, what do you guys think about going to sleep?" I asked, yawning loudly afterwards.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I found that Cirdan, who had been sleeping on the other couch, had disappeared.

_Where could he be?_

I then noticed a note on the side table. Going over to it, I read,

_"Kirito, we're going to a strategy meeting on the second floor boss. I didn't want to bring you because you need time to prepare for your little plan. Asuna is going on a quest that I told her about so she can get a new rapier, and she'll be meeting up with us in a little while. Since you're the only one with the map data of the boss's location, I presume you'll be able to get there quickly enough to start your plan early._

_PS: If you get injured, I will NEVER forgive you, you got that?! You'll taste my wrath!_

_-Cirdan"_

I felt a shiver go down my spine at the thought of Cirdan's wrath. At the same time, some far-off, demented part of my brain wondered what it would taste like.

_Thanks, Cirdan. Now, I guess I've got to go. I'll see you at the boss room, my friends._

* * *

As I approached the boss door, I started to question myself.

_Should I really do this? I'm not sure I can survive. But… I have to do everything in my power to keep the casualties to a minimum in this world!_

I PMed Cirdan, saying only three simple words:

_"I'm going in."_

With that I walked toward my fate, and quite possibly the last room I would ever see.

* * *

**A/N:**

**I'M SO SORRY!**

**This took FOREVER to post, and I can't say how much I regret that, 'cause there's too much to put in words! Anyway, it's explanation time.**

**I realize that: 1) I had Kirito win a duel AGAIN, even with a handicap, and 2) he got over his trauma rather fast.**

**To explain #1, well… Kirito already did that didn't he? Aria had a HORRIBLE choice of weapons to begin with, so they were both handicapped to some extent until Kirito got over his trauma.**

**#2 is a harder one to explain. The sole reason I had him get over it in two chapters is because I needed to progress the plot without focusing on time consuming things, like those that give me writers' block.**

**As of this chapter onward, the entire chapter titles will be in hex. Use a hex-to-text converter to figure out what it means!**

**Oh, and I also have two polls up on my profile page concerning the branches of ESR.**

**YES! I finally get to say my parting phrase!**

**May happiness be with you,**

**OMG**


	9. Chapter 9:Error: 556e7365616c65642046617

Chapter Nine

Error: 556e7365616c65642046617465

* * *

**Warning: this chapter contains some bad language.**

* * *

_As I approached the boss door, I started to question myself._

_Should I really do this? I'm not sure I can survive. But… I have to do everything in my power to keep the casualties to a minimum in this world!_

_I PMed Cirdan, saying only three simple words._

**"_I'm going in."_**

_I walked into the room of the second floor boss, possibly the last room I would ever see._

_I walked toward my fate._

* * *

The room was just as I remembered it: limestone brick tiled floor, pillars adorning the walls, and a platform occupying the room's center. In the middle of the platform was a hole filled with water where the boss—a beautiful mermaid at first glance—resided.

The mermaid looked at me, attempting to use her signature skill, [[Charm]], to seduce me into walking over to her so she could kill me slowly and mercilessly.

I started to lose it, walking in toward the mermaid, vision getting hazy, feet slowing down yet not moving from their set path.

Then images of two people started to appear in my vision. The two people that haunted my dreams.

Asuna and Sachi.

I saw images of my various times with Asuna, the majority of which I couldn't remember ever happening. Then I saw images of my time spent with Sachi, _none_ of which I remembered ever happening.

Then, finally, the movie-like images of them dying.

"_Gomen ne. Sayonara." Asuna!_

"_Arigatou, sayonara." Sachi!_

I snapped out of the trance I had been put in by the mermaid.

I went into a rage. A rage beyond salvation.

My vision burned red. So red that I was almost blinded by the haze of vermillion slowly darkening to crimson.

It seemed almost as if my eyes were _bleeding_.

I took one more step.

The ground shook violently.

Then… it cracked.

The ground started to fall all around me into the vast waters below.

_What?! It went into rage mode immediately!_

* * *

(Asuna)

I had just finished the quest [[Bird Eye's View]] to get a new rapier, the [[Sparrow Beak]] that Rita told me about, when I got a PM from Cirdan that said,

"_Asuna, it's Cirdan. You need to hurry and get over here with the rest of the clearing party. Something bad has happened with Kirito. I've already got everyone else here with me, and we're heading toward the boss room to assess the situation. You're fast and powerful, so I expect you can meet us here on your own. I'll explain once you meet up with us._

_-Cirdan"_

Wide-eyed, I shouted only one thing before I took off to find them at top speed:

"KIRITO-KUN!"

* * *

(Cirdan)

_THAT IDIOT! He went in before we even _got_ there! He's going to DIE! I have to keep calm. Right now they think I'm the leader, for Kami-sama knows what reason, so if I freak out, chaos will erupt everywhere._

We stood before the boss door, none of us willing to take the first step without Kirito, no matter how much some of us hated him.

"Are you guys wondering where Kirito is?" I shouted out to the crowd as I stepped to the front.

Every single head in the room nodded, some angrily, some out of curiosity, all in fear.

"Well then, I'll tell you. Kirito is in there!" I shouted as I pointed backwards to the boss door.

Gasps echoed through the air.

"He went in so he could figure out the boss's abilities and patterns for us, just to help us live!"

More gasps, some of them coming from my friends. Even Argo appeared to be shocked.

"Then where is he!? I don't see him coming out!" a random player yelled.

"He said to give him five minutes, and if he's not out by then, then he's dead, and we enter."

Even more gasps could be heard throughout the room, all of them sounding akin to fearful.

* * *

(Kamiko)

_Kiri-kun… I know you'll be all right, but still… I worry about you, Kiri-kun._

"The five minutes are up! Looks like he's not comin' out! So he's dead, eh? We don't need him! CHARGE!" Kibaou roared.

"Every word outa your mouth just PISSES me off, you got that?!" Aria shouted.

"Oh my…" Rita said with an awkward smile.

"Let's do this!" Kibaou challenged her.

_What an idiot._

I was _pissed_. I decided to speak up.

"I've had it up to frickin' HERE with you idiotic assholes fighting with each other so much! Seriously, the whole frickin' way here, this white-haired dumbass and this idiotic frickin' _cactus-headed prick_ have been bickering nonstop!" I shouted, pointing to Aria and Kibaou.

"And then we have _half _of the frickin' clearing party dissin' _my_ Kiri-kun! I won't have you _pricks_ doin' that anymore, you GOT that, you frickin' pig-faced morons?!"

Kibaou moved his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. "I'm not done yet! Anyone caught dissin' my Kiri-kun or bickering over something most likely _pointless_ will answer to my legendary class [[Ferlinius' Claws]]!"

Everyone stayed silent.

"Now, does anyone have anything to say?" I asked in a dangerously low tone, just _waiting_ for someone to object.

Nobody did.

"Ahem. I have this to say to you, Kamiko. Nice! Thanks for quieting them down for me. I just _hate_ a noisy crowd," Cirdan said, catching me off guard.

"Anyway, I say we go in. Regardless of _his_ status, we need to beat that boss no matter what if we really want out of this death-game at all. Now, I have a pretty good idea of what we're up against, assuming that Kirito's information isn't _completely_ outdated," Cirdan said.

"So he told _you_, but not us," one of the clearers with disgust.

"Yes. Because _I _am his _friend_. Did any of you people treat him kindly? Did any of you even _ask_ for information? _None_ of you did.

"He would've _gladly_ given you some info on the game if you had just come up to him and asked. You people _still_ hate him, yet he risked his _life_ to help you _ingrates_ live! Don't any of you feel any regret whatsoever? Do_none_ of you feel any remorse?"

I heard, to my bewilderment, several apologies from the crowd.

_Cirdan…_

"What the HELL are you apologizing to ME for?! You should've apologized to _him_, to Kirito, when you had the chance!"

"Cirdan, calm down, calm down," Rita said gently.

"Well _I_ don't think that baka is dead just yet!" Aria said loudly, startling the whole crowd.

"The guy is annoying, but persistent. I don't think he'd die at the hands of _just_ the second floor boss, no matter _how_ beefed up it might be. If _any_ of you have the _guts_ to even _face_ him, then let's go in there and KICK SOME MONSTER ASS!"

Cheers erupted throughout the room, shocking me to my very core.

"Rita, you are one heck of a motivator, you know that?" Cirdan said cheerily, putting an arm around her shoulder.

The color of her face was very akin to a tomato right then, although nobody, save Rita, Argo and I, noticed.

"T-th-tha-thank y-you!" Aria said, flustered.

_Cirdan, you're even more dense than Kiri-kun._

"All right then, let's go!" Cirdan said as he walked up to the boss door.

He pushed it open.

We walked in.

What we all saw shocked us.

* * *

(Aria)

Kirito was nowhere to be found. That scared me.

_If he's dead, then do _any_ of us have a chance against it the way it is now? If it's _really _already in __Rage Mode__, then we don't stand a _chance_ against it without Kiri-chi. Who knows how much its patterns have changed?_

* * *

(Cirdan)

The boss room was… beautiful, but at the same time, terrifying.

The entire boss room was like a lake of sorts, with the only dry land being the platform by the door, and the platform where the boss's mermaid half resided, cruelly trapped on the surface.

_If Kirito really died here, then we have _no idea_ how much the boss has changed, decreasing our chance of survival dramatically. What the hell, Kirito?! Why'd you die on us?!_

Just then, I got a PM notification. Thinking it came from Asuna, I opened it up and started to read.

_Good, you're here. All right, I'll get right down to business. It went into __Rage Mode__ as soon as I got within about fifteen meters of it, and it moves a lot more violently and erratically than it did in the beta. It still follows the same basic patterns, but its attack and defense are so high that I can't get near enough to attack. Currently I'm underwater near the northwest switch, waiting for you guys to come in and help me out. Here's my plan so far:_

As I read further into his incredibly detailed plan, I was more and more impressed.

"What in the _hell_ are you doing?! We need to attack, not read a stupid message from a random friend!" Kibaou shouted at me angrily.

"Listen up everybody! I just received a PM from Kirito that gave a plan on how to defeat this boss! Now, are we ready to hear it?"

Every head in the room nodded aggressively.

"All right, here we go! We split up into eight groups, with six players in each group! Group one will go towards the northwest corner of the room and look for a switch. Group two will go to the northeast corner and follow suit. Three and four will do the same thing with the southwest and southeast, respectively. Group five will attack from the front, and group six will attack from the rear. Group seven will split up and slowly surround the left and right sides readying for a dual attack. Group eight will lie in wait until all of the switches have been pressed, and then run up onto the stairway created, up to the boss room in pairs!

"Now, the group leaders will be as follows! Group one will be led by Kirito, since he's already over there. Group two shall be led by Agil. Group three will be handled by Kamiko, and group four by Kibaou."

At this, Kibaou smirked triumphantly.

"Group five will be handled by Aria here," I continued, putting my arm around Aria. "Group six will be led by Klein. Group seven will be led by yours truly.

"And finally, group eight will be led to victory by Rita, Aria's sister! Also, in this boss room, you _can_ breathe underwater, but it slows down your movements. Are there any questions?"

Silence.

"All right, LET'S GO!"

* * *

(Third Person)

And they charged.

Everything started perfectly. Before long, all of the switches save for Kirito's had been pressed, seeing as the boss, [[Hydria the Water Chimera]], focused its attacks on the players with the highest levels, which slowed down his team's progress considerably.

Cirdan had just notified group three to join up with Kirito and defend him while he pressed the switch using his massive STR.

Kamiko arrived first, easily parrying the Kraken Half of the boss's wild attacks with her claws.

Once the switch was pressed, Rita shouted, "Let's go!" and she and another member in her group ran up the bridge that arose.

To all the non-beta-testers' surprise, the water level started falling. However, when it did, smaller versions of [[Phibbius the Frog King]] started to spawn rapidly.

Cirdan shouted out, "Ignore them! They do negligible damage with low accuracy! Just go for the Kraken Half's limbs! They can't move without water, so don't be afraid!"

Everyone obeyed, relentlessly attacking the limbs of the Kraken Half.

Kirito, on the other hand, noticed something very, very wrong.

Rita was injured.

* * *

(Rita)

I knew I was injured, but I still fought on anyway. I didn't care that I hurt, I just wanted the LA Bonus from the boss.

My katana was quickly wearing down, and I knew it.

_Perfect._

"[[Melted Burst]]!" I shouted.

As my katana's durability decreased, a fiery five-hit combo started.

_Left, right, up, down, JAB!_

I didn't waste any time in activating the second skill in my "perfect skill combo," [[Broken End]], the final hit of which was more powerful with lower weapon durability.

_This'll finish this thing for sure!_

_Diagonal down, jab, diagonal spin—_

Upon the last attack, my weapon broke, destroying my hopes of living through this game. All the other players who had traversed the bridge with me had _literally_ been eaten, so I had no one to defend me.

_This is it._

Two sets of claws came rushing at me insanely fast.

I closed my eyes tight.

"[[Anneal Driver]]!"

Both sets of claws were deflected, and the player even got a hit in before the skill stopped.

"Are you okay, Rita?" the player asked, sounding upset.

I opened my eyes to find Kirito standing before me, a very worried look on his face.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," I said timidly, feeling bad for making him so worried.

He opened up his menu while dodging the boss's attacks.

"What are you doing?" I asked, sounding more pissed off than I actually felt.

"Helping you get the Last Attack Bonus. Open your menu." Kirito said calmly.

I did as told, and a gift box appeared in my inventory. I opened it to find a rare katana drop exclusive to the second floor, the [[Indigo Lightning]].

"W-wha…? Why are—"

"Equip it. You'll see," he said impatiently, just waiting while dodging all the boss's attacks.

I did as told.

"Look at your HP bar."

I looked, only to find it slowly regenerating before my eyes.

"W-what the—"

"That's the effect of the [[Indigo Lightning]]; automatic Battle Healing," Kirito grinned.

I looked away to hide my blush. _Why the heck am I blushing?_

"Now, get up and get the LA bonus!" he said firmly, still holding a smile.

"Right!"

_Wait, why wouldn't he want it for himself? It doesn't make any sense!_

I turned around, preparing to use one more Sword Skill. The skill to end this.

"[[Coastal Reap]]!"

Activating the skill mid-draw, I wasted no time in executing it perfectly.

_Diagonal draw, diagonal down, SPIN!_

The beast shattered, but not completely.

The lower half, the Kraken Half, was still moving.

Moving without its top half guiding it.

Moving without water.

The boss's lower half started to move out from under the center platform, trampling a few players in its wake. Luckily, they survived, but with only a few HP to their names.

"CRAP! The beta's information is near _useless_ now! What're we gonna do!" my sister shouted.

"Rita! Can katanas use [[Arc Pierce]]?" Kirito shouted over a multitude of sickeningly desperate screams.

"Y-yeah…? Why?" I asked nervously.

"Good. Aim for the area where the mermaid was!" he yelled over even more screaming.

"All right!" _How did he know I had it?_

"Good, now I'm gonna go move it toward you. When I say go, jump as high as you can and activate the skill!" Kirito shouted, already jumping down to help.

I had been waiting for about fifteen minutes without a signal. I soon grew sick of watching people run around helplessly, and just before I jumped down, I heard a shout that stood out from the rest.

Kirito shouted, "GO, NOW!"

I then noticed that the lower half of the boss was in the perfect position to strike, just as Kirito intended it to be.

And so I took the chance.

I jumped, activating [[Arc Pierce]] mid-leap.

Suddenly, I was propelled towards the ceiling, doing a vertical 180 degree turn so my feet would hit the ceiling of the room.

_I get it now!_

I jumped off the ceiling, propelling myself toward the beast at an extremely high speed.

"RAAAAGH!" I screamed in fury, remembering how many people had died already in this boss fight.

As my katana made contact with its center, the boss started shimmering.

Then it exploded.

Millions of polygons showered down upon the whole room, signaling our absolute victory.

As I dropped down, I heard cheering. I looked up.

Everyone was cheering. Cheering for _me_.

I walked over to where the [[Last Attack Bonus]] lay, waiting for me to accept.

Katana: [[Crimson Combustor]].

_So that's why he wanted me to have it._

My sister ran over to me, holding my arm up in the air. "To my sister, the one who defeated the boss!"

Cheers were heard everywhere throughout the room.

"How many did we lose?" Cirdan asked, already calculating.

Kirito went into his menu and checked. "Everyone's still here, though some are just barely hanging on."

"WE DID IT!"

**A/N:**

**YAAAHOOO! I'm finally done with the second floor! (Well, almost done.)**

**The polls I have up will stand until the end of chapter 10, after which I'll close them and write out the choices that received the highest votes. The polls are as follows:**

**Poll one: When should I start the harem branch of ESR?**

**Choice one: Immediately following the clearing of the second floor boss. (This means sometime during chapter 11.)**

**Choice two: During the seventh floor. (There IS a reason behind this choice.)**

**Choice three: When the other branch starts. (This means right after episode three of the anime, not when I actually start WRITING the Sachi branch, which might be earlier depending on the other poll.)**

**Choice four: No opinion.**

**Poll two: Should I start writing and posting the Sachi branch early?**

**Choice one: Yes.**

**Choice two: No.**

**Choice three: No opinion.**

**Now, time for explanations… well… it would be… except I just can't think of anything to explain right now!**

**Oh, wait. I should explain that the boss DID go into Rage Mode immediately, but because of this, the creators saw fit to make a _second_ Rage Mode. That's why everyone but Kirito was either screaming or didn't get a line in that time frame.**

**Other than that, there's really not much to explain other than the weapon stats for Rita's new LA Bonus katana, because they have some significance in the plot later on. Here goes.**

**Weapon name: Crimson Combustor**

**Type: katana**

**Attack power: 225-250**

**Possible upgrade attempts: 11**

**Stat bonuses: DEX + 20, STR + 15, CON + 12**

**Equip requirements: 35 DEX, LVL 28+**

**Effects: 100% chance of inflicting the Burn condition (that never naturally wears off) on players, 98% on mobs, 75% on quest/field bosses, 35% on floor bosses; user loses 15 HP for every burn inflicted on any opponent save for floor bosses, in which the user receives 50 damage.**

**Keep an eye on the Burn part. That's gonna have a role later on.**

**I think that's about it! If you guys have any questions, then PM me and I'll explain them to you as best I can.**

**Now, it's time for my parting phrase!**

**May happiness be with you,**

**OMG**


	10. Chapter 10: Working With the Devil

Chapter Ten

Working with the Devil

* * *

_As my katana made contact with its center, the boss started shimmering._

_Then it exploded._

_Millions of polygons showered down upon the whole room, signaling our absolute victory._

_As I dropped down, I heard cheering. I looked up._

_Everyone was cheering. Cheering for me._

_I walked over to where the [[__Last Attack Bonus__]] lay, waiting for me to accept._

_Katana: [[__Crimson Combustor__]]._

**_So that's why he wanted me to have it._**

_My sister ran over to me, holding my arm up in the air. "To my sister, the one who defeated the boss!"_

_Cheers were heard everywhere throughout the room._

_"How many did we lose?" Cirdan asked, already calculating._

_Kirito went into his menu and checked. "Everyone's still here, though some are just barely hanging on."_

_"WE DID IT!"_

* * *

(Kirito)

As I watched in the background, silently cheering for Rita, Cirdan came up to me.

"So you _can_ think on your feet. You've really improved strategy-wise since the beta."

"Thanks, Cirdan. But I didn't make the killing blow. Rita did that," I told him, smiling faintly.

"Don't think I didn't see what you did there. You let her get that bonus," he shot back with a grin.

_Sometimes I can't tell if he's a serious guy or a jokester. He's changed since the beta. Guess we all did._

I put my hands up, "Fine, you got me. I didn't need the weapon, and katanas are her specialty. 'Sides, she tried so hard. I think anyone willing to risk their life to get stronger is either really brave or really stupid. We both know which one Rita is."

"Stupid?" Cirdan joked.

_So, is he a serious guy or not?_

"Brave. Now, what's up with you?" I asked. "You've loosened up more than I've ever seen you before, Cirdan."

"Guess I'm just hyped up on victory! Aren't you?"

"In my own way," I lied.

_Something's definitely off about Cirdan. He seems… nervous._

"Anyway, let's get moving, guys!" Aria said, coming up from behind and slinging her arms around both of our shoulders.

"_Not. One. Word._" Rita poured her sadism into my ear, soft as a whisper.

_Even though I can beat her, she's still so freaking _scary_._

"I agree," Cirdan said, sounding less nervous this time.

"Oy vey…"

"What was that, Kiri-kun?" Kamiko asked from behind us.

"Hah… Nothing," I replied, head hanging.

_Oh, right!_

I shook off my friends and started to walk to the center of the crowd, where Rita was being interrogated about her power.

_Wait a second… that's right! She was able to block __Phibbius'__ attacks with just her katana, and took almost _no_ damage from it! There's something off._

* * *

(Rita)

I saw a figure entering the crowd to my right, the clearing party separating to make way for him.

As the figure grew nearer, I could discern his features from the rest of the players in the room.

"Kirito?"

He walked up to me, grabbing my shoulder and saying, "Why don't we give our champion the honor of leading us one step closer to ending this death game? What do you say?"

_Kirito… wait, champion? Does that mean…? No use pondering, I guess. I'll just ask him later._

Cheers erupted throughout the boss room, even louder than before.

I smiled, feeling truly overjoyed.

"_Thank you, Kirito,_" I whispered.

I walked up to the floor door, Kirito right behind me, followed by Kamiko, Cirdan, Aria, Klein, Agil, and Argo, who had just arrived.

When I put my hand on the door, it opened, revealing a dark swamp that smelled of methane and sulfur.

"What an awful smell," Argo said, her nasal inflection even stronger than usual.

"And just who the hell are you?" Kibaou said, finally taking notice of the not-so-noticeable information broker.

"Argo, the famous information broker, at your service!"

Gasps echoed throughout the swamp, attracting the attention of a group of nearby giant crocodilian mobs named [[Alligus Maximus]].

"RUN!"

* * *

(Several hours later, Asuna)

_Kirito-kun, where are you?_

As I entered the boss room, I found it completely empty, the door to the next floor open and waiting.

"I guess they already cleared this floor," I said, astounded.

"Right! I have to find Kirito-kun!" I ran up to the door, going through to the next world of [[Aincrad]].

* * *

(Kirito)

As we started nearing the first encampment of the third floor, I decided it was time to part ways.

"All right, everyone, this is my stop. The first village is just a little further north, so you should be fine. I'm gonna go grind so I'll be ready to help Rita lead the next boss fight. Anyone have questions?"

I expected them to get mad at me, to want Rita to lead the next boss fight alone.

I didn't expect what I heard next.

"All right, but can you at least help map out the dungeon for us while you're out grinding?" Kibaou asked, giving an uncharacteristic smile.

Heads turned in his direction.

_What?_ "You got it, Kibaou."

* * *

It took time, effort, time, dual wielding, time, and lots of polygons, but I finally leveled dual wield to five hundred.

Did I mention it took TIME?

As I neared the dungeon, the mobs appeared less and less frequently.

_What the heck? Why are there even _less_ mobs?! It doesn't make sense!_

"It seems we meet again, Kirito-kun," a deep voice said.

"Where are you? Show yourself!" I shouted. That voice… sounded like…

_Kayaba Akihiko!_

I quickly put my second sword away as to not get wiped out by his admin capabilities.

I heard footsteps coming from behind me. Turning around, I came face-to-face with a man in red tinted leather armor who wielded an enormous shield and a one-handed longsword.

Heathcliff.

"Sorry. You sounded like someone else for a second," I said nonchalantly, my heart pounding relentlessly.

Looking around, Heathcliff inquired, "That is of no importance. Did you also notice it?"

"Notice what?"

Looking me in the eyes, Heathcliff said, "The unusual lack of monsters in this area. Thirty meters ahead lies the boss dungeon, yet this area is empty.

"Furthermore, there should not be a field boss here at this time, for they are supposed to spawn at night."

_This isn't right. He knows _exactly_ where the boss dungeon is, _and_ knows when the field bosses spawn on this floor? But I never _once_ heard someone with his voice in the beta, and they didn't change the voices then. Someone of his strength would've been very well known in the beta, so something's definitely very wrong with this picture._

"Kirito-kun?" Heathcliff said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What is it?"

"As I was saying, I propose we work together to find whatever is causing this lack of monsters and destroy it. Who knows, it could have a rare item," Heathcliff finished, giving me his trademark impassive stare.

"Not interested."

"What if… your friends were caught by whatever made this happen?"

"I left them right before we got to the first town," I said flatly.

"What about your friend who wasn't at the boss fight? Asuna, was it?" Heathcliff queried, a smirk forming on his lips.

I clenched my fists. "Fine. Let's go."

* * *

We spent hours searching, finding absolutely nothing. I was about to give up when I realized something.

"We haven't formed a party this entire time. I _know_ you didn't forget. You're hiding something, aren't you?"

Just as Heathcliff opened his mouth to speak, we heard a loud noise that sounded like the cry of a field boss known as [[LinLong the Swamp Dragon]].

"Not _that_ thing! We have to get there fast, Heathcliff!"

"You seem to know what you're doing, Kirito-kun. Let's go!" Heathcliff exclaimed, finally showing emotion.

We ran. Ran as fast as we could.

_Faster! FASTER! I HAVE TO MOVE FASTER!_

As soon as I got there, I noticed a multitude of players being massacred by LinLong all at once.

[[LinLong the Swamp Dragon]] was a snake-like beast; thirteen meters long and tri-headed, all of which could breathe a poisonous gas.

"NO!"

I immediately jumped into action.

There were only three players left, two of them in the red judging by the way they staggered.

"REEAAAGH!"

Executing a 12 hit combo, the [[Critical Strike: The Twelfth]], I set to work in attacking the beast's underbelly. This skill starts out as a critical hit, but gradually loses power with each strike.

_Left, right, diagonal up, down-_

It flipped around and slapped me backwards with its tail.

I ran back towards the beast, my sword skill still in play.

_Up, down, diagonal up, left, diagonal up, flip-slash, up, pierce-_

I dragged the sword through the underbelly of the dragon, not stopping until I reached the front to deliver the skill's final strike.

_UPPERCUT!_

"Heathcliff! NOW!"

Heathcliff activated a skill, [[Dragging Edge]], which drags you towards the nearest mob until you stab its vital spot. Until you find it, you hit endlessly without rest.

"Switch, Kirito-kun!" Heathcliff said, holding out his shield.

"[[Vertical 720]]!"

I ran forward and jumped, hitting Heathcliff's shield with the first two hits, propelling me into the air and double slashing LinLong with the rest.

"Double-team it!" I shouted to Heathcliff.

"Roger!"

And we did. We slashed and hacked away until it went into Rage Mode, beginning to turn into its second form.

Its tail started to coil around its neck just before the three heads parted, morphing into a bestial body while its three heads grew larger.

Muscular arms and legs grew from the still-forming body, with pointed scales that jutted out of its body to look like the feathers of a giant bird.

Suddenly, razor-sharp claws started to protrude from the arms and legs.

I watched in awe as it completed its transformation. Once it finished, it was roughly seven meters tall, with three horned heads, four arms with extremely sharp claws, four legs with similar claws, and a metal-spiked tail.

_Crap._

"You got a plan?" I asked Heathcliff with a worried look.

"Do you?" Heathcliff shot back.

"You're no help."

I charged recklessly, dust swirling around rapidly in my wake.

_I have to do this!_

"Kirito-kun! Use [[Purging Slash]], now!" Heathcliff shouted.

_How did he know I had it?_

"Got it!" I quickly yelled in reply.

Activating the aforementioned skill, I felt my sword tug me toward the beast's right arm, and I willingly complied. Once I got there, the five hit combo started.

_Up, down, right, DRAAAAG!_

The last hit dragged my sword up through the beast's arm, stopping at its shoulder to commence the last hit of the combo: a strike that would cut off its arm.

And it did.

"Heathcliff! [[Shield Bash]] it! I have an idea!"

"Roger!"

As I backed off, Heathcliff closed in, performing a perfect [[Shield Bash]]. When I started to charge back in, Heathcliff took the hint.

I jumped off of his shield, starting a [[Diagonal 720]].

_Double diagonal spin-_

As the last spin propelled me back, I shouted, "Heathcliff! Claw incoming!"

When Heathcliff dodged the claw, I came back and started a skill called [[Ferocious Array]].

_Up, down, left, diagonal up, down, thrust, right-_

I added three more hits with its effect.

_Diagonal down, up, down-_

Three more.

_Up, down, UPPERCUT!_

Heathcliff jumped in front of me just in time to block an attack that I hadn't seen coming.

"Go from behind and use [[Inch Slash]]!"

"All right!"

I ran behind the beast while Heathcliff held it off, starting to activate [[Inch Slash]].

After I phased through the beast, I found myself about to collide with Heathcliff's shield. He gave me a look that said, "Make use of it."

_I get it now!_

I turned around in midair, jumping off Heathcliff's shield.

Spinning in the air, I activated yet another skill, the [[Precise Strike]].

"KUUREEAGGH!"

_JAB!_

I jabbed straight at its middle head, my sword making contact with its head at the same time as its claw made contact with me, putting me in the red.

The hideous beast shattered into thousands of polygons, overriding my immense pain and replacing it with relief.

"It's finished. You're amazing, Heathcliff," I said with a smile.

"Same to you, Kirito-kun. Now, I must be going. Farewell."

As he walked off, images flowed into my mind.

I was in an arena, sitting on the ground. I saw Heathcliff with much fancier armor, giving me the same icy glare he did in [[Phibbius' Cave]], then walking away in the same fashion as he just did moments ago.

_"Heathcliff… you're hiding something, and I'm gonna be the one to uncover it."_

Getting back up and accepting the LA bonus, I noticed that the players were all still there, shocked into silence.

I walked over to them and said, "It's gone now. I'll take you guys to the nearest village. Will that be okay?"

"Thanks," one of them said, his fatigue evident.

"All right, let's go."

* * *

It was dark by the time we got to the village, and after I directed them to the nearest inn, I decided to go grind.

Just before I left, someone ran into me, enveloping me in a hug.

"Kirito-kun! You're okay! Thank god!" Asuna exclaimed, squeezing me even harder, if that was possible.

"Whoa, what are you talking about? Nothing bad happened to me since we parted ways." _Well, minus __LinLong__ nearly killing me in a single blow._

"But Cirdan said something really bad happened to you, and for me to come quickly!"

"What? Well, I don't know why he would say that, but I didn't need rescuing," I said with a grimace.

_Cirdan, next time I see you, I'm not gonna hold back._

"Well, anyway, I was just leaving, so see you."

"Oh, no you don't! Not yet, Kirito-kun. Tell me what happened at the boss fight."

"Oh… uh… I uh…" I started.

_No way to hide things from her, I guess._

"Okay. I went in before everyone else got there so I could discern how the boss's attack patterns changed since the beta, and the boss went into Rage Mode immediately after I got within twenty meters of it."

"What was its Rage Mode?"

"I was getting to that. The ground collapsed out from under me, making me fall into the water. Then the entire floor of the boss room collapsed. I could still breathe, just like in the beta, but my movements were slowed.

"I swam to the only corner where its limbs weren't able to reach, waiting for the others to get there. Once everyone _did_ get there, I PMed Cirdan with more details on how to defeat it, and he came up with an amazing plan. However, after every part of the first stage was complete except for mine, he sent Kamiko to help me.

"She deflected the boss's blows with her claws while I flipped the last switch, which caused the water to drain and allow Rita to go attack the top half of the boss.

"After a while, I noticed Rita was injured, so I rushed over to help with a second to spare. When her weapon broke, I lent her a spare weapon of mine, a rare katana drop. She made good use of it, quickly destroying the top half of the boss.

"Then, the lower half of the boss started to run wild. I urged Rita to activate a powerful skill, and when she did, she destroyed it and got the LA Bonus for herself.

"After that, we left the dungeon for the next floor, and here we are now," I finished, out of breath.

"Hmm… you're leaving something out."

_How in the hell would she know about the field boss fight?_

"Hmm… well, never mind. It's impolite to pry."

_Oh thank god._

"Anyway," I said, "I'll be leaving now. Gotta go grind."

My statement was met with a glare. _Crap, I said too much!_

"He will be safe. Let him go."

"H-Heathcliff?" I said, turning around to find myself face-to-face with a now better-armored Heathcliff.

I then realized that Asuna was still squeezing me tightly, and decided to push away. Gently, of course.

"All right, I'm going now. Thanks, Heathcliff."

* * *

As I grinded, I kept thinking about what Heathcliff said.

_"He will be safe. Let him go."_

_Something was off about the way he said it. I don't get it!_

Then, I noticed three mobs quickly closing in on me. These mobs, the [[Swamp Lizard B]], had _incredibly _high HP and defense, but dealt _huge_ EXP to the one who got the killing blow, _and_ had extremely low attack. It was perfectly compatible with an over-leveled solo player like me.

I activated [[Dashing Throw]], a powerful dual wielding skill to be used on three mobs.

I dashed toward the first of three, hitting it with a powerful spin attack enhanced by my Dual Blades, throwing my second sword through the other lizards' heads.

Seconds later, polygons exploded everywhere, lighting up the area in an eerie whitish-blue color. I sighed with relief as I went to retrieve the blade that I threw, the drop from LinLong; [[Peat-Soaked Fang]].

"Well, I think I'll call it a day. Two levels will be enough for now," I said contentedly as I walked to the inn.

"Impressive," someone said from behind me.

"Rita? What're you doing here?"

"Out leveling, same as you."

"I see… hey… Rita?" I started.

"Yeah?"

"Why is the forest behind you _burning_?"

* * *

**A/N:**

**And with that, we're done with another chapter! GOODBYE HIATUS!**

**Anyway, guess what? I'm not just releasing _this_ today. I'm releasing the newest chapter of Gunslinger, _and_ I'm releasing an ALL NEW story! By popular demand, I'm bringing out the Black Cats Branch EARLY! It'll be called Black Cats Revival.**

**Yup, that's right. Today isn't a single OR double release. IT'S A TRIPLE!**

**Also, I'll be having another triple release sometime in the future, including the 1st chapter of the Harem Branch, the 2nd chapter of The Final Stretch, and the 11th chapter of ESR.**

**Anyway, I should explain the weapon details of the LinLong drop.**

**Name: Peat-Soaked Fang**  
**Type: One-handed Longsword**  
**Floor Acquired: Floor 3**  
**Method Acquired: [[LinLong the Swamp Dragon]] Drop**  
**Passive Modifiers: All damage from this weapon is considered Physical Damage in addition to element types. Increases player's Battle Healing, Emergency Recovery, and potion healing potency by 5% while near swamps, fens, wetlands, or graveyards.**  
**Stat Point Modifiers: +27 Strength, +4 Constitution**  
**Possible Upgrade Attempts: 10 Attempts**  
**Notes:**  
**Deals 25% of damage as Earth-element Physical Damage**  
**Deals 25% of damage as Water-element Physical Damage**  
**Deals 8% additional physical damage as Fire damage for 8 seconds after landing a critical hit. Enemies are burned for 2% of their maximum life over 4 seconds (debuff does not stack)**  
**(Field/Quest Bosses are burned for 1% of maximum life over 8 seconds)(debuff does not stack)(Floor Bosses are burned for 1% of maximum life over 8 seconds)**

**Now, for the fun part. I get to explain why I made Kirito work together with Heathcliff. I really only did that to give Kirito more flashbacks… or would they be flashforwards?**

**Also, a HUGE thanks goes out to my Plot Hole/Armory beta, Dusk Ado II! You're amazing!**

**And with that, all I have left to say is:**

**I don't own Sword Art Online, its characters, or anything else I use from it, so don't sue me Aniplex!**

**See ya!**


	11. Chapter 11: The White Scythe

Chapter Eleven

The White Scythe

* * *

**Warning: there's swearing ahead.**

* * *

_Seconds later, polygons exploded everywhere, lighting up the area eerie whitish-blue. I sighed with relief as I went to retrieve the blade that I threw, the drop from LinLong; [[Peat-Soaked Fang]]._

_"Well, I think I'll call it a day. Two levels will be enough for now," I said contentedly as I walked to the inn._

_"Impressive," someone said from behind me._

_"Rita? What're you doing here?"_

_"Out leveling, same as you."_

_"I see… hey… Rita?" I started._

_"Yeah?"_

_"Why is the forest behind you burning?"_

* * *

"Oh, that? My sword did it."

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, right. The boss drop I got inflicts burns and does fire damage. Since there are flammable gases all over the place, it causes stuff to catch fire when I make contact with a mob or field boss," Rita explained.

"Does that mean you actually went up against a field boss _already_?"

"Yeah. But don't worry, I'm fine! It took triple damage because of the fire element of my katana."

I sighed._ Kami-sama, this girl is either really smart or really stupid._

"Might I ask which field boss you went up against?"

"I think… Oh yeah! [[LinLong the Swamp Dragon]]! That's it!"

"Ah-eh-ah… HOW IN THE HELL?!"

"What do you mean? Oh, right, I guess I _did_ just solo a field boss. This thing inflicts burn to enemies, so it went down even easier," she said.

"Don't give me that. That katana was a Crimson item, right? They _all_ have drawbacks. So, what kind of damage did it do to you?"

"Well… hehe… it gives me a—"

Her eyes rolled up into her head, and she collapsed limply.

"Rita? Rita, wake up!"

* * *

(Asuna)

I have no idea what to do. Heathcliff asked me to join his guild, but… what of Kirito?

_Could I really just abandon Kirito-kun to join Heathcliff's forming guild? But then… Heathcliff said that…_

I wandered in a daze until I ran into a certain information broker.

"… Argo?"

* * *

_Hours earlier_

_"He will be safe. Let him go."_

_"H-Heathcliff?" Kirito said, turning around to face a now better-armored Heathcliff._

_After a few seconds, Kirito gently pushed me away from him._

_"All right, I'm going now. Thanks, Heathcliff."_

_Kirito walked quickly, out into the swamp._

_"Kirito…-kun…" I called out quietly._

_"Don't worry, he is the strongest player in the whole of SAO. There's something… special about him, something I can't explain in words," Heathcliff said, smiling nostalgically._

_"I agree."_

_"Well, I have a proposal for you, Asuna-kun. If I can convince Kirito-kun to join, would you be willing to become a part of my guild once it is created?" Heathcliff asked me._

_"S-sure!" I said, noting that I sounded a little too enthusiastic._

_"And if he were not to join with you? He does not really need you _or_ me, so I cannot guarantee he will join my guild."_

He… doesn't need me?

_I was paralyzed. I couldn't breathe. If he didn't need me, then what was I to him?_

_As Heathcliff walked away, he left a parting comment._

_"I hope you will consider my offer, Asuna-kun. Farewell."_

* * *

"So, what you're saying is that the guy Kirito dueled in Phibbius' cave asked you to join his guild, telling you that Kirito doesn't need you? That snake!"

"Calm down, Argo. I think… I think he's right. Kirito doesn't need anyone to get in his way, least of all me… I wasn't in the beta like all his other friends…"

"Well, there's Rita! She's not a beta-tester! Don't worry, he—"

Just then, Argo received a PM from someone. Her face turned frantic.

"I've gotta go, Asuna! I'll see you later!"

Once she left, I sunk back into the depths of depression and doubt.

_Am I just… a nuisance? Could that really be all I am to him?_

_Should I join Heathcliff's guild? If my first friend thinks of me as a nuisance, then what do my other friends think of me? Kamiko, Cirdan, Aria and Argo are all beta-testers, and Rita is super strong… Would I be better off with a fresh start?_

* * *

(Kirito)

Three hours later, in the town's inn, Rita had yet to wake, so I remained with her. I had given her a [[Status Healing Potion A]] to heal her [[Burn]] condition, but she still hadn't shown any hints of awakening.

"Rita… don't do this to me… I still have questions for you, so if you don't wake up, I won't forgive you!"

*Yawn* "What kind of questions?"

Rita sat up in her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Rita? You're finally awake," I sighed in relief.

"As for the questions… how were you able to block the attacks of Phibbius with _just_ your katana without taking severe damage? And how the _heck_ did you defeat LinLong all by yourself? It doesn't add up. You're hiding something."

"I can't hide anything from you, can I? Did you ever get a message from a GM saying something about the fatal flaw of the [[Cardinal System]]?"

"Hmmm… " I contemplated. "Now that I think about it, yeah," I said.

"Did he or she give you anything?"

"Yeah… where are you going with this?"

"What did he or she give you?"

"I don't know if I should be telling you this, but she gave me the most powerful one-handed swords in the game, [[Dual Wield]], and an ability to use with them."

"Why haven't you used those swords, then? You would _easily_ be able to level up and beat the game faster!" Rita asked, glaring at me.

"Take a look for yourself," I said.

I pulled up my inventory, going into the extra folder, [[Gifts From Rinko]]. "See, the items are all grayed out. Even if they weren't, it would draw too much attention. If one of the GMs, or even Kayaba himself saw me with them, they might delete me from the system. Then I wouldn't be able to help everyone."

"I see… that makes sense. Well, I'm going to get back to sleep now, the sun has almost set already!" she said.

"But Kirito… would you mind staying here, at least until I fall asleep? I… I get nightmares easily."

_Just like Kamiko._

"Sure, I don't mind."

"Thank you, Kirito…" and with that, Rita flopped back onto the bed, already asleep.

* * *

It was only an hour later, when I was about to fall asleep next to her, that I realized something. _She never answered my questions!_

I sat up, wondering what time it was. Opening my in-game menu, I realized that I was running out of daylight… _fast_.

_Wait a second, when did I start laying down? Well, it doesn't matter. I just need to get up._

Suddenly, a PM from Argo appeared in my inbox. I opened it and read,

_"Kirito, my sources are telling me that something really bad is happening in the [[Swamp of Chaos]]! Several people have died as soon as they entered! You've got to go see what's going on!_

_-Argo"_

"She didn't even call me Ki-Bou. This must be _serious_."

* * *

(?)

_It seems that making my master go to the trouble of forming a guild was worth it. Look at this magnificent landscape! It's the perfect place for a guild headquarters! Now, if only those pesky low-leveled players would stop getting in my way. I don't really like having to kill people, but if they keep barging in here and trying to level, then I won't hesitate._

"Hey, supervisor! Where do we start with the building process thing?"

*Sigh* "Good for nothings…" I mumbled. "We need to build walls to seal off the entrance first! Those annoying newbies keep barging in, and I can only kill so many people in a day without getting tired of it. However, I never get tired of killing people who don't follow my orders."

"Y-yes sir!"

* * *

(Kirito)

When I arrived at the [[Swamp of Chaos]], I found giant walls guarding the inner area.

"These weren't here when Heathcliff and I fought LinLong… something's wrong."

A player ran up to me, gasping and begging for help.

"What's wrong?!" I yelled, running over when he collapsed.

"My party just wanted… to level in the swamp… but these players in gray cloaks… they wiped every single one of us out… even I…" he paused, starting to cough violently. "I'm poisoned…"

"Hang in there!" I shouted. Frenzied, I pulled out an antidote potion.

Just before it reached his mouth, the man's body shattered into countless polygons.

"Damn. Just my luck… his HP ran out just before I could finish him off!" a voice yelled with agitation.

I got up to face the man clad in gray. "You… are you the one who did this?" I asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, what're you gonna do about it, pretty boy?"

Red slowly consumed my vision. "This… can end in two ways… one: you get down on your knees and grovel for forgiveness like the sick dog you are… or two: you die to my sword!"

"Big talk, now let's see you do the walk! Raaagh!"

I may have been consumed by anger, but that didn't mean I became stupid. I waited for him to come to me, and when he struck, I allowed the slash to make a miniscule scratch on my cheek.

Now that it was considered self-defense, I quickly retaliated with a swift [[Anneal Driver]] to the spine.

"AAAAAGH!" the man dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. Seconds later, a sound akin to shattering glass could be heard throughout the swamp. I had done it. I killed him.

Six more appeared. One of them pointed to me and shouted, "He destroyed Johnson! Everybody, kill that man!"

"Just you f***ing try it!" I snarled back.

They charged at me, all slashing wildly. Each one landed a small scratch on my arms or legs. I didn't even flinch. Instead, I activated [[Chain Skill]].

I started with a deadly [[Inch Slash]], aiming my attack toward the wall. Once I slashed through a player and reached the wall, I sprinted upwards and jumped off at the top, delivering an [[Impact Force]] to the ground below the remaining five, sending them backwards into the sky.

Once they landed, I continued with an [[Impact Wave]], slashing the air several times to create five shock waves that slashed through all of the players. They exploded into countless polygons of all shapes and sizes, never to return to the real world.

"Well, you took them out with no problem at all. It is to be expected, after all, seeing as you _are_ a [[Champion]]," said an arrogant voice behind me.

I found a man in a white cloak, equipped with a kind of weapon I had never seen before, even in the beta—a scythe. The man walked over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"The hell's a [[Champion]]?" I asked while swatting his hand away.

"A [[Champion]] is one of the five most powerful warriors in this world," he said. "Of course, one of the other requirements has almost nothing to do with that."

"And what would _that_ be?"

"You have to have _survived_."

"Survived _what_?"

"I have no obligation to answer that question. However, I _do_ have an obligation by my master to test your limits."

"Hehehe… AHAHAHA! Bring it on!" I thundered.

"Before we start, I'd like you to use everything you've got, _including_ your [[Dual Wield]]."

_He knows?! Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter now! I'll crush him!_

I manipulated my menu, equipping my newest sword, the quest reward known as [[Cronus' Sword]].

"{{System Influence: Orange Override}}!"

_Shit! He's a GM?! _My rational self inquired from deep in the confines of my soul, forcing me out of my rage._ Oh well, I just have to fight!_

I charged, slashing with my left sword and preparing a skill with my right. The man immediately caught on, bashing me with the butt of his scythe and sending me flying back.

As he ran toward me, his weapon did something I never would have expected. It disconnected at the center, the other half forming into another scythe.

"It's on!" he shouted.

_CLASH, CLASH, CLASH!_

I could barely keep up. His attacks were just too fast. He kept me permanently on the defense. I didn't have the time to retaliate, let alone activate a skill.

"I don't know what my master sees in you, but it's certainly hard to believe that you're a [[Champion]]. Weakling," the man said with disdain.

Red filled my vision once more. I hadn't felt this enraged in _years_. I howled in pure rage.

"RAAAAAAGH!"

The shock on his face gave me the opening I needed to go back on the offensive.

_Left, right, up, down, diagonal up, cleave, double jab-_

The second jab hit him right in the stomach, to which he responded by immediately ripping my right sword out of my hand and sending it flying to the right with his left scythe. He followed up with a jab from the blunt tip of his right scythe, which I blocked with some effort.

I dashed towards my second sword, but the man appeared in front of me in a blur just before I got to it, knocking me to the ground and putting both of his scythes around my neck. He pressed them to my neck, making my HP drop by just a small amount, red marks appearing where he put pressure.

_Is he going to… kill me?_

"You lose," the man said simply.

Drawing his scythes away from my neck, he walked over to my sword and picked it up. After tossing it up me, he said, "Here's your sword. You did better than I expected, so I'll tell you what. We'll stop PKing for a little while, and we'll take our base of operations elsewhere. My name is Yami. Remember it. Ja ne, Kirito."

As he walked away, he faded into the fog. The red in my vision subsided as soon as he fully disappeared.

Several seconds later, everything faded into black.

* * *

When I woke up, I found a girl with long chestnut hair sitting on the floor next to my bed, one hand over mine.

"Asuna?"

"Uuuh…" she mumbled groggily, raising her head. "Kirito-kun? You're awake?"

"Yeah, I'm awake. How did you find me? I know that you weren't in the area…"

"I traced you on the friend checker menu. That reminds me… I have a question. Please… answer it truthfully," Asuna said sadly.

"Go ahead," I replied carefully.

_She seems so fragile right now. I hope I can make her feel better. I just have to._

"… What am I to you?"

"What?"

"Am I just a nuisance? I'm not as strong as you… no one is… I know you don't need anyone, you've made it obvious… but… am I at least a little important to you?" Asuna asked shakily, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Of course you're important to me. You're one of the first friends I met in this game, and _nothing_ will change the fact that you're my treasured friend," I said with sincerity.

"Thank you, Kirito-kun… I… I…" Asuna uttered. Sniffling, she started to cry.

I felt so bad for giving her the wrong impression. I hugged her tightly, saying, "There, there… don't cry. I'm sorry that I made you think that way about me. I promise that you will remain special to me. You'll never feel any other way about me again, I'll make sure of it."

_What the hell am I doing? I don't want her to be too attached to me, and yet here I am saying all these things to her without hesitation!_

"Kiri-kun, are you okay? I heard you were injured— what's going on here, Kiri-kun?"

_Kamiko?! Oh crap!_

"It's nothing," Asuna said quickly, cheeks stained with red. Getting up, she walked to the door.

"I'm going to go level…"

"Wait, don't!" I shouted frantically.

"What? Why?" Asuna and Kamiko inquired in unison.

"The reason you found me unconscious… there are PKers running loose." I tried to convey my sense of foreboding.

"What?! You mean that they…? Why didn't they kill you?" they asked, in perfect sync.

"It's a long story."

"We've got time."

"Okay… here goes. I received a PM from Argo telling me that something bad was happening at the [[Swamp of Chaos]]. When I went to check it out, a man came to me and told me that his entire party had been PKed. He told me that he had been poisoned, and just before I fed him an antidote potion, he died.

"Then, a man appeared and told me he was the one who poisoned the now dead man. Red filled my vision, and I… killed him. After I did that, several more, I think six, came and tried to kill me. After I killed _them_, another man came, telling me that I was a… a [[Champion]]. I still have no idea what he meant by that. He said that his master wanted him to test my limits, and then we fought. He was using a kind of weapon I had never seen before, not even in the beta. He was using a _scythe_.

"He told me that he knew about my [[Dual Wield]], and that he wanted me to use it. When I complied, he used some kind of command. He said '{{System Influence: Orange Override}}.'

"He then split his scythe into two scythes, charging at me and totally overwhelming me.

"I couldn't get back to the offense. He was just too _fast_. After a while, he called me a weakling, sparking an even deeper rage within me. I got back on the offense and scored a single hit before he ripped my [[Anneal Blade]] from my hand. When I ran over to get it, he appeared in front of me and knocked me to the ground, putting both of his scythes around my neck.

"After that, all he said was a simple 'You lose' and retracted his scythes. He went over to my sword and tossed it back to me. He told me I did better than expected, and said that he'd make his lackeys stop PKing for a while and move his base of operations elsewhere. He told me his name was Yami, and he left."

"But there wasn't anything there when I found you… they couldn't have moved entire _walls_ that quickly, could they?" Asuna stated, perplexed.

_What?!_

* * *

**A/N:**

**Wow. That was crazy. Kirito lost!**

**So, it finally happened. I've been trying to drive the point home for a while now, and I finally found a way to do it! If this doesn't make you happy, then I don't know what will.**

**Also, I've gotten some nasty reviews from various guests out there. I realize these kind of reviews can "come with the territory," but a recent rash of them has been the last straw. If lurkers come to my stories just to hate and don't have the guts to sign in or make an account, then I will delete their reviews on the spot. They can take their idiocy somewhere else.**

**Ahem. Anyway, who was that cloaked stranger? (Names aren't everything!) How does he know about Kirito's [[Dual Wield]]? What is he trying to do? Who are his followers? What master is ****_he_**** following? Guess what? I'm not going to tell you!**

**Yep, that's right. I'm not going to explain any of that in this A/N! Instead, I'm going to tell you the stats of Kirito's new weapon, the [[Cronus' Sword]]! (I know I didn't use the [[Peat-Soaked Fang]] in this chapter, but there's a good reason which will be explained in the next chapter.)**

**Weapon name: Cronus' Sword (obviously!)**

**Type: One-handed Longsword**

**Floor acquired: Floor 3**

**Method Acquired: Completion of the [[Titans' Threat]] quest.**

**Attack Power: 270-295 (Increases by five per upgrade)**

**Passive modifiers: Varies depending on the class it's given. (The reward is GUARANTEED to have a special class.) Kirito's is a (Rare) class, with Attack + 5% and Movement speed + 1.**

**Upgrade attempts: 9**

**Stat Bonuses: STR + 23 DEX + 17 CON + 15**

**Notes: For each extra weapon Kirito has on him, his attack is increased by 2.5%. (Throwing picks count as one weapon. Kirito's second sword, the [[Anneal Blade]], also counts as an additional weapon, making his attack at + 10% with the (Rare) class bonus.)**

**All right, it's disclaimer time!**

**I don't own SAO, any of its characters, or anything else used from it in this story!**

**See ya!**


	12. Chapter 12: The Castle of Darkness

Chapter Twelve

The Castle of Darkness

* * *

**Beginning A/N:**

**Hello there, I've been getting another rash of guest reviews again… but this time, they're not hateful!**

**So, a little bit of explanations dedicated to the guest reviewer named o-o. First, Rita really does have white hair in real life. She has something called albinism, which causes lack of pigment in hair, skin, and eye color. Because of the countless blood vessels in her eyes, which all humans have, and the fact that she has no pigment, her eyes are red, which means that her red eyes aren't there just because this is an anime FanFiction.**

**Next, we have the reason that Rita and Aria, the sisters of the group, don't go leveling together. Let's just say… they don't get along very well. That'll be expanded on in later chapters.**

**Without further ado, have a fun read, everyone!**

* * *

_"After that, he simply stated, 'You lose' and retracted his scythes. He went over to my sword and tossed it back to me. He told me I did better than expected, and said that he'd make his lackeys stop PKing for a while and move his base of operations elsewhere._

_"He told me his name was Yami, and he left."_

_"But there wasn't anything there when I found you… they couldn't have moved entire walls that quickly, could they?" Asuna stated, perplexed._

_**What?!**_

* * *

For a week now, I've been searching tirelessly for this mysterious group's base of operations. I gained three levels in the process, as well as achieving three-quarters mastery of [[Dual Wield]]. I had no idea who this group was, but I knew their objectives couldn't be anything good. That wasn't the true reason for my search, though.

_I have to find that man!_

I don't know why I wanted to find him. Was it to unravel his secrets, or was it simply for… revenge?

I had gotten into fights with all my friends over this, and I still had yet to make up with them, or even tell them the reason why I broke contact.

_I'm sorry guys, but I don't want any of you to get hurt because you were with me._

I had leveled up my [[Hiding Skill]] to the point that I could have it on for days on end, and when I did, I was completely off the map. No one could find me. But I liked it like that.

I was currently living at a shop in the city, taking refuge in an NPC's guest room unlocked by a quest.

I had already completed the quest to get a house on this floor, but everyone knew I lived there, so I only went there when I absolutely needed to. Even then, I only went there on the darkest of nights.

Tonight was one of those nights.

* * *

As I went through the city under cover of darkness, I noticed some information brokers out on the streets, haggling with customers for information.

_Even this late at night?_

When I arrived at the front yard of my house, I saw the only friend I hadn't fought with yet.

_Argo._

I had scheduled to meet with her tonight to ask for information. She didn't know what I was going to ask about… or so I thought.

"So, Ki-Bou, you've got everyone pretty mad at you. Don't worry, I understand you."

"No you don't," I said, getting agitated.

"You're looking for the hideout of the [[Phantom Reapers]], aren't you?"

_How did she?!_

The ruthless PKing guild had made itself known as the [[Phantom Reapers]] to those who fought them and lived, which currently numbered less than ten. I was apparently the first person in the game to fight one of them and live.

Still, anyone who _did_ live never told anyone without the knowledge that they'd keep it a secret. Thus, no one really knew about them but the ones who had seen them up close and lived… and their closest friends. It was just that traumatizing.

"Does that mean that you've seen them?" I asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, and I number as the ninth person to fight them and live." Downtrodden, she continued, "Don't worry though, I'm just fine…"

"Something really bad happened, I can tell," I said, seeing through her lie immediately.

"All right… I'll tell you, free of charge."

_If it's free of charge, then it must be something _really_ bad… and she wants me to do something about it._

"All right, let's hear it."

"I was partying with Asuna, Rita, Kamiko, Cirdan and Aria to search for their base, and… we found it."

_I hope this isn't going where I think it's going._

"They surrounded us. We tried to fight, but… there were just too many of them. They slowly overpowered us with sheer numbers, and just when we were all about to collapse, the crowd parted to reveal a man in a white cloak using a scythe. He used some kind of sleep fragrance, and put everyone to sleep other than me and Cirdan, who had been leveling up our [[Status Resistance]] skills. We ran away as fast as we could, but Cirdan got caught. I'm the only one who got away. *Sniff* I don't even know if the others survived or not!" Argo said sadly, bursting into tears.

I wrapped her in a tight embrace, soothing her as best as I knew how. "Shhh… it'll be okay… I'll find those bastards and get our friends back. I promise."

That may not have seemed like the best way to comfort someone, but with Argo, it worked like a charm.

"Thank you, Ki-Bou…" Argo sniffled, coming out of her depression.

"All right, do you want to come with?" I asked warily.

_I'm not sure if I want her to come with me, but we both need people to watch our backs. They're probably looking to come back and eliminate us as it is._

We left my house, Argo leading us into the night.

* * *

(Yami)

I emerged from the shadows that the streetlight cast on his house, clapping my hands as I watched them leave.

"Yeah, that's right, Kirito." I whispered. "Go. Go right into my master's arms."

* * *

(Kirito)

We had been walking for hours, longer perhaps. I began to count the times we passed by different kinds of trees… and stopped when I reached the twenty-fifth.

Argo, however, didn't seem to be bored in the least.

Suddenly, a serious look came across her face, and she pointed to a cave just to our left.

"That's the cave we found them in. They should be in the deepest part of the cave," she said, suddenly holding back tears.

_This is so unlike her._

"It'll be okay, don't worry. Now, let's go!"

We raced through the cave, reaching the bottom quickly due to our movement speed bonuses. When we got as deep as we could go, I noticed something… off… about Argo's expression. She was crying silently. I then realized that there was no hideout of any kind in the depths of the cave. She had set me up.

"What's going on, Argo? Why did you deceive me?"

Someone in a cloak as black as night walked out from behind her, laughing eerily. "It took you _this long_ to figure it out? You're a fool, Kirito… well, I guess you always have been."

_That voice… it's—_

"Yamiko! Why are you here?!" I shouted in disbelief.

"Well, I'm here to eliminate the biggest threat we have to our organization, the [[Black Beater]] and [[First Champion]], that's all."

"Look, I don't know what all this champion stuff is, but I can't let you kill anyone else! I know that we were friends once, but if you kill anyone else, then I'll stop you in any way I can!" I yelled furiously at the girl standing in front of me.

"Oh? I don't remember ever having a friend. If we really were friends once, would you go as far as to _kill_ me?"

I flinched back in shock. _That's right! I can't kill her! She was my first crush!_

"I propose a challenge. If you can defeat me in a duel, then I'll disband my guild. If you _lose_, however, then you will join me. If you decline, then Argo here will pay the price right here in front of you."

_I have a feeling that she's the 'Master' that the scythe guy was talking about. But… I can't back down now! I've gotten so much stronger over the past week! I'll win for sure!_

"I accept your challenge!" I yelled, going into my menu to equip my two fully-upgraded additions to my equipment folder.

Once fully equipped, I held the [[Peat-Soaked Fang]] in my right hand, and the [[Cronus' Sword]] in my left. I glared at Yamiko with all the anger I could muster.

_Can I really fight her?_

Yamiko threw off her cloak, revealing her shoulder-length white hair, deep violet eyes, and a figure that most girls _dream_ of having.

_So, she changed her look?_

On her back was a double-bladed staff, which she promptly took off of her back, and…

"[[Weapon Merge: Disconnect]]!"

_What the hell?! It's the same technique… HE used!_

She disconnected the staff at the center, the two halves looking like two longswords. She charged at me with blinding speed, just barely giving me time to block.

_CLASH, CLASH, CLASH!_

_This is turning out the same as before, but even more intense! I have to find an opening!_

It was then that I found the opening I'd been looking for.

_When she strikes upward, she leaves her legs _completely_ unguarded for just a split second!_

_CLASH, CLASH, CLASH!_

We kept on swinging, sparks flying with each clash we made. Then, I finally got the chance I was waiting for.

When she struck upward, I kicked her hard in the shins, sending her reeling backwards.

I smirked, activating one of my newly acquired skills, a fifteen-hit combo known as [[Shine Circular]].

_Left, right, double diagonal up-_

The first three hits made perfect contact.

My player cursor turned orange. I remembered my fight with Yami.

_"{{System Influence: Orange Override}}!"_

_Does that mean that he was protecting me from becoming an orange player? But that means… Yamiko was leading me into a trap! She wanted me to become an orange player!_

My vision was overcome by a deep crimson, and I could even feel my _eyes_ turn red.

After that, Yamiko began to block all of the strikes with perfect ease.

At the same time, we shouted, "Is that everything you've got?!"

Our breaths hitched in unison.

_"Is that all you've got, Yamiko?" I asked while our Shinai were in a deadlock._

_"I was about to ask you the same question, Kazuto!" she shouted as she pushed me back._

When we snapped out of our flashbacks, we were in the exact same deadlock as we had just seen, my swords' blue glow fading.

"Screw this! I reached my objective, so we'll call it a draw," she said, a sad look crossing her beautiful features.

"So you remembered? By the way, you looked better without the dye in your hair," I said, causing her to reel back in anger.

"SHUT UP!" she shouted, primal fury in her eyes.

She fled, other guild mates in cloaks appearing out of nowhere and falling in line behind her.

_Well, I'd better go to Argo._

I ran over to her… or… where she _had been_.

"Argo? Where did you go? ARGO!"

_Damn it, they took her! I'll DESTROY THEM!_

Red filled my vision, getting darker and darker until it became completely black. The blackness consumed my sense of reason, sending the real me plummeting into the depths of my soul. Strangely, I could still sense what was around me, which I used to my full advantage.

As I ran through the cave, I found that I could move faster than ever before, even faster than Yami and Yamiko combined. Cave walls blurred by in seconds until I found myself breaking out into the forest.

In the light of the moon, I found that I could see through the blackness, as if it were a tint instead of a coat of paint.

I saw people running into the distance, quick as the wind. I wasn't about to let something as trivial as _speed_ stop me, so I ran. I ran toward them even faster than I ran in the cave.

"What the fu—" one of the cloaked men managed to get out before I slashed him in two.

"RAAAGH!"

I screamed in bestial fury, slashing three more to pieces with an [[Impact Wave]].

Running to catch up to the remaining five and finish them off the same way, I noticed that Yami was there, the only survivor of my vicious attacks.

"Payback!"

As soon as that word slipped from my mouth, he turned around and ran to meet me, his scythes already clashing against my swords.

Snarling, Yami said, "It seems you've gotten better, [[First Champion]]. But you're still no match for me!"

"Oh really? I just went toe to toe with your master!"

"The hell are you talking about?"

"Does the name Yamiko ring a bell? The one with a [[Unique Skill]]?"

"She may have a [[Unique Skill]], but she's only my _sister_! My master is _much_ stronger!" Yami yelled with contempt.

"What?!"

He used the opening created by my shock to turn to the offense, slashing with pinpoint accuracy. I could barely even block.

"I won't… let you… get in my way!" I yelled, the coloring of my vision changing yet again, this time into silver.

"What the f*** happened to your eyes?! They're f***ing silver!" Yami shouted, jumping back.

"I'll send you to hell, where you'll rot for eternity like the filth you are!" I said, my voice competing with another.

"Yami, we don't have the time to deal with him right now! Let's get out of here!" Yamiko yelled at him with a talk-back-and-you-die tone in her voice.

"Damn it! 'Til next time, [[First Champion]]!" And with that, they disappeared without a trace.

"Get back here, you cowards! I'll kill you!"

When I snapped out of my rage, I realized something. _They didn't have Argo with them!_

"K-Ki-Bou? Are you… are you sane again?" the voice I was looking for said from behind me.

"Argo… what the hell?! Why the _hell_ did you do that?! I can't believe you would deceive me… and about something so _important_! Your deceit caused me to go into that rage, and that caused me to kill _so many people_!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I immediately regretted it once I saw the tears running down her face… and the uncharacteristic sobs escaping her throat.

"I'm sorry! Please, please, forgive me! I-I'm sorry!" she sobbed.

_She's sincere… I can't stand to see her like that…_

"I'm really mad at you right now, but… I'll try to forgive you. I'm not sure if I can fully forgive you yet, but just know that I'll never truly hate you, nor will I ever hurt you," I soothed her.

"Thank you…"

"Now, I'm sorry if it's a little too soon to talk about this, but… why did you set me up?"

"I-I don't know, I just saw someone shout some kind of system command, and then I couldn't think, I could only do as I was told. I know it's hard to believe, but I swear I'm telling the truth," Argo said, sounding less upset.

"I believe you. Was the guy who shouted the command wearing a white cloak?"

"Yeah, he was!"

"So that guy can manipulate the command line of the [[Cardinal System]] to his will. That guy… I won't let him get away with taking our friends! Argo, are you ready?"

"Yeah!"

And we ran. Ran in the direction they fled. We ran for at least an hour before realization hit me and I slapped my forehead.

"I'm such an _idiot! _Argo, we can just use our [[Tracking Skills]]!"

"Good idea!"

Activating my [[Tracking Skill]], I noticed that the footprints were not on the ground, but in the _trees_.

_Guys… don't worry, we're coming! We're coming to save you all!_

* * *

(Kamiko)

They separated Rita and I from everyone else some time ago and forced us to fight legions of mobs that they forced into the room.

Activating a devastating skill - [[Critical Chain]] - I started tearing through mob after mob. [[Critical Chain]] is a four-hit combo that boosts (or lowers) your critical hit chance to 90%, and with each critical hit made, four more hits get added on, as well as another 2.5% critical hit chance. If and when you hit 100% critical hit chance, the combo stops, with a maximum of sixteen hits.

_Slash left, swipe right, cleave, JAB-_

My first critical hit.

_Swipe left, swipe right, slash down, CLEAVE-_

Another critical hit.

This continued until I had reached the maximum hit count, having destroyed every single mob in the room. However, seconds after I wiped them out, they started to respawn.

"Kamiko, I think we have to work together to keep them from re-spawning!" Rita yelled from the center of the room.

"All right! I'm under a long EE right now, so you'll have to cover me for a while!"

"Got it!"

Rita dashed over to me, defending me from even the most brutal of attacks with ease. _How in the hell?!_

"All right, I'm ready! Let's do that [[Team Skill]] we were talking about!"

"All right… one… two… THREE!"

We then shouted, "[[Team Skill: Invisible Shadow]]!" in unison.

I jumped directly over Rita, grabbing all of my throwing picks and sending them flying in all directions at a speed that made them ignite in a black flame. At the same time, Rita started spinning her katana around her even faster, creating shockwaves that pushed more than half of the throwing picks into the enemies out of normal range.

The shattering sound of millions of polygons of countless shapes and sizes bombarded our eardrums, signifying the simultaneous destruction of every mob in the room.

"Very good, you've passed the first test. You seem to be worthy of your titles, [[Third and Fifth Champions]], unlike that weak Dual Wielder," that same white-cloaked man said impassively.

"H-he knows?!" Rita shouted.

_That damn bastard called Kiri-kun weak!_

"Yes, I know about _all_ of the champions, thanks to my master. He told me of your plans, and said to test you."

"Is your master… maybe… a GM?" Rita inquired.

"So, you're not a _total_ airhead, [[Rita the unyielding]]. Yes, my master is a _by the book_ GM, and you know what that means…"

"You could delete us at any moment, right? Kiri-kun said he heard you shout a System Command," I said, trying to sound unemotional but inwardly shaking in fear.

"Yes, I could, but… that wouldn't quite be fair now, would it? My master wants to give you a sporting chance, and I believe if anyone can pass this test, then you [[Champions]] have a better shot than anyone. Hell, I might even help… you know, once I've had my fun."

"And what's the test?" I queried.

"Face me, two on one. With your teamwork, clearing the task at hand should be childs' play, should it not?" the man taunted.

"All right, bring it on!"

* * *

**A/N:**

**Dang, I didn't even know I could do that! I pulled off two chapters in two days! (Well, I wrote two chapters in two days, I just didn't publish them that fast.) Sometimes I amaze even myself.**

**Anyway, a lot of stuff was revealed in this chapter, huh? (Maybe too much… hmm… maybe.) I honestly don't have much to say. Then again, I **_**did**_** stay up all night Tuesday night/Wednesday morning writing this, so I think my brain was just **_**fried**_**, and I'm too lazy to find anything to explain now. It's as simple as that.**

**Well… I guess I should mention the cliffhanger questions, huh?**

**Will Kamiko and Rita be able to beat Yami before Kirito gets there to steal the glory? Where are Asuna and Cirdan? Are they even alive? If so, will they still be alive when Kirito and Argo come to save them?**

**Find out in the next exciting chapter of ESR!**

**Oh, and there's also this:**

**I don't own SAO or any of the characters, floors, skills, or weapons I borrow in this story!**

**See ya!**


	13. Chapter 13: The Champions Gather

Chapter 13

The Champions Gather

_"You could delete us at any moment, right? Kiri-kun said he heard you shout a System Command," I said, trying to sound unemotional but inwardly shaking in fear._

_"Yes, I could, but… that wouldn't quite be fair now, would it? My master wants to give you guys a sporting chance, and I think that if you guys can pass this test, then you [[Champions]] have a better shot than anyone. Hell, I might even help… you know, once I've had my fun."_

_"And what's the test?" I queried._

_"Face me, two on one. With your teamwork, clearing the task at hand should be childs' play, should it not?" the man taunted._

_"All right, bring it on!"_

* * *

(Kamiko)

The man threw his cloak aside, revealing jet-black hair and violet eyes, no shirt, and a black jacket with the sleeves torn off and the missing bottom half displaying his muscular build. He drew his scythe and split it in two, just as he had supposedly done with Kirito.

Rita and I shared a brief glance, instantly coming up with a plan.

I dashed forward, my dagger coming into contact with one of the man's scythes. The other scythe swung around to catch Rita's katana as she slashed at him from behind.

With both of our weapons caught in his scythes, he spun us around relentlessly, laughing like a maniac all the while as we struggled to break free.

When our weapons finally slid out of the scythes' hold, the centrifugal sent us flying before we slammed onto our backs on opposite sides of the room.

We got up and ran towards each other, already making a new plan with our eyes.

"[[Team Skill: Flying Fire]]!"

I threw five exploding Throwing Picks at our enemy's face, and even though he blocked them with his scythes, they did their job. The burst of flame and smoke blinded him.

"HAAAAAH!" Rita and I screamed in unison as we ran toward him.

I fell behind, allowing Rita to make the first move. His scythes came up to block her, and she batted them down with her katana. The scythes lodged in the ground, making Rita's target helpless against the final attack.

Rita bent over, and I vaulted off her back, delivering the last part of the skill from above: a three-hit combo called the [[Stunning Flash]].

"RAAAAAH!"

_Downward flip-slash, CLAW PIERCE!_

I landed behind him, delivering the final hit.

_SPIN SWIPE!_

"Kamiko, watch out!"

* * *

(Rita)

Just as she delivered the final hit, he smirked.

_No! He couldn't have that skill!_

"Kamiko, watch out!"

He dislodged his scythes from the ground, whirled around, slashed us both in the stomach, and sent us flying back several meters.

"This… is it. Say goodbye, [[Third and Fifth Champions]]."

"Ugh…"

"Hell no!" a familiar voice shouted from the door.

My eyes widened.

"Kiri-kun!"

* * *

(Kirito)

"Like hell you'll kill them!" I yelled vehemently, breaking through the door.

"Oh, if it isn't Mr. Silver Eyes himself!"

"You bastards lied to me! You said that you would release them if I led him to the cave!" Argo screamed.

"You didn't _seriously_ believe that a shady gang of people in cloaks would keep their word, did you? Just how stupid _are _you?"

"You know what? F*** it! I'll take you on here and now! To the _death_!" I roared.

I had had it. I was done dealing with Yami. However, my vision didn't change as I thought it would. It stayed perfectly clear.

"Bring it on!"

We ran toward each other at inhuman speeds.

_Well, this _is_ a video game. _I thought in a split second of amusement.

Clashing repeatedly in showers of sparks, neither of us managed any headway.

Argo started running in to help, but I shouted, "Go and rescue Asuna and Cirdan! This is _my_ fight! I don't want anyone else to get hurt in this! Now GO!"

"G-got it!"

And with that, she fled through the North door.

"You've got guts [[First Champion]], I'll give you that much," Yami said cockily, smirking like a demon.

"And you're super strong as always! However, I can tell that your power stayed the same! What, did you get turned into a mini-boss?"

He backed off with a shocked expression on his face. "H-how in the hell did you—?!"

"Wait, I was right?!" I stammered.

_Does that mean I get EXP when I kill him?_

I rushed back toward him, getting one hit in before we were back to clashing without end.

_Left, up, diagonal spin, block, sidestep, parry-_

I parried a double strike with my left sword, sending his scythes into the air. I jabbed him in the chest, dangerously close to the heart.

That sent him into the red, with less than three percent of his HP remaining. I retracted my sword.

"This is your last chance before I kill you."

"Just you f***ing try," Yami said arrogantly.

"All right then, this is it for you!"

I tried to stab him again, but… my sword stopped just centimeters short of his heart. There was a message that appeared next to my sword, one that brought back horrible memories.

{{Immortal Object}}.

_"{{Immortal Object}}? What's going on, commander?"_

_"The system ensures that his HP will never go into the yellow, no matter what happens."_

_"There's nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG! Isn't that right, Kayaba Akihiko?"_

"I'll give you the tactical victory here. Ja ne, Kirito," Yami said impassively, walking away.

Then, just as in the [[Swamp of Chaos]], he vanished.

"That guy… he was an {{Immortal Object}}… did they see it?"

I looked around to find Kamiko and Rita unconscious on the floor, blissfully unaware of the crisis at hand. I went to Kamiko first, using a potion to heal her injuries.

When she opened her eyes, I said, "Can you take care of Rita while I go find everyone else?"

"Yeah, go!"

_That flash of words… it said… but that means that Kayaba Akihiko is in the game!_

I dashed to the next room, finding it to be a control room of sorts. I then saw… a command console.

_With this, I can… no, this isn't the time! I have to find Asuna and Cirdan first! I can use this command console to locate them, and then I can do that_ after_ I find my friends!_

I started to type in a string of code that Cardinal System operated on, and… it worked.

_Too easy._

**_Command Line Activated. Type Your Command._**

_Cirdan will probably be with Asuna, so I'll just search for her._

I typed in, **_706c61796572206c6f6361746f723a206173756e61_**, and it showed me a location in the building.

_Perfect,_ I thought, downloading the map data.

I typed the code to deactivate the console, immediately running to the place I saw on the map.

_Let's see… keep going until I reach room… 666? This does _not_ bode well._

Dashing at my top speed without {{Blood Rage}}, I kept going until I couldn't run anymore.

"Damn it! It has to be here! The map says so!"

_Wait a second… this view is from above, and it doesn't say the floor number! Maybe if I switch to a side view, then I'll see something different! Maybe it's on a lower floor!_

I switched the map to side view mode, finding that the room was _in between_ the floor I was on and the one below it.

_There must be a way to get there!_

I started to search the area around me, finding absolutely nothing.

"Need some help?"

* * *

(Asuna)

Bound by ropes, I felt as if someone was going to kill me at any moment.

Of course, it didn't help that we were in a dark room, being stared down by a menacing girl with white hair and purple eyes.

"What are your motives, _Yamiko_?" Cirdan queried, spitting out her name as if it was venom.

"Oh, nothing you two need to know. All I'll tell you is that the test is beginning," Yamiko said, walking into the other room.

_"Asuna, scoot closer,"_ I heard Cirdan whisper.

_"What is it?"_ I whispered back.

_"How do you distribute your Stat Points?"_

* * *

(Argo)

"Need some help?" I asked Kirito.

"Argo, you startled me! Yeah, thanks."

And so we set to work… or more accurately, he worked and I got lost in thought.

_Does Asuna really mean that much to him? Well, I guess Cirdan is there too, but still… the way Ki-Bou was protecting Asuna before the first floor boss battle proves that Asuna is very dear to him… wait… am I getting jealous? Well, whatever. Asuna is my friend too, so I have to help save her!_

I looked over at Ki-Bou, noting… he had an orange cursor. _Wait a second, he has an orange cursor?!_

"Ki-Bou, why do you have an orange cursor?"

* * *

(Kirito)

"That? Weren't you there? When I fought Yamiko, I made the first blow, turning my cursor orange."

"That's right… I'm sorry…"

"Hey now, don't go back into depression mode," I said in consolation.

"… You're right! All right, let's do this!" Argo yelled, pumping her fist in the air.

After a few more minutes of searching, Argo exclaimed, "I found it!"

I turned around to face her as she pushed a tiny bulge in the wall. The switch glowed bright green and revealed a door.

_Wait, this is familiar!_

"Argo, don't!"

Too late.

Before I could stop her, the door shut behind her, leaving her on her own to defend herself against whatever deadly trap awaited her.

* * *

(Argo)

Just after I walked into the room, I heard Ki-Bou shout something, but I couldn't hear it clearly through the now closed door behind me.

_Wait, the door closed?!_

The seafoam-green room turned red in an instant, alarm noises blaring as a very powerful fourth floor mini-boss appeared in front of me.

[[Rainus the Storm Chimera]].

Rainus towered above me at six meters tall. It had the head of a dragon, the body of a muscular human, the tail of a rattlesnake, and the legs of a goat, all covered in crimson fur. It wielded a giant axe, almost as big as the beast itself.

It swung its axe down at me, narrowly missing me yet sending me flying.

_Damn it!_

I kept narrowly avoiding its attacks, but the sheer force kept sending my HP closer and closer to the yellow zone.

_Do I have to use _it_? But what if someone comes in?_

While I was fighting with my sense of reason, Rainus swung its axe down. I had just enough time to dodge, but the force sent me flying to the wall.

_Ow… damn it, this isn't the time to hold back!_

I quickly opened up my in-game menu, all the while dodging Rainus' attacks as fast as I could to avoid recoil.

I equipped a second pair of claws, immediately dodging one more attack before activating one of the few pieces of information I possessed that wasn't for sale.

My [[Unique Skill]].

The claws extended to form mini-swords of sorts, and I used them to block an oncoming strike, deflecting all recoil onto the beast.

While the mini-boss was stunned, I ran at it and performed three quick slashes to its stomach, followed by a double jab.

I jumped back to avoid an incoming slash from the now-recovered monstrosity.

"[[Infinite Snake Bite]]!"

My claws began to glow indigo.

_Left, up, diagonal down, down-_

My skill adapted, and I jumped back to avoid another slash. Afterwards, I continued attacking.

_Jab, jab, uppercut, cleave, spin, down, down-_

My skill adapted again, blocking an axe swing and sending the axe flying into the air.

_Spin, double uppercut, tear, inverted V-_

I jumped back, avoiding a punch. This time, however, it wasn't because the skill adapted. It was merely preparing for the final part of the combo.

The tips of the claws started to come loose, and I threw them at the Rainus with deadly accuracy. They hit him right in the eyes.

Now it was time. My claws re-extended, and I held them in front of me. They began to glow a bright red color, a sharp contrast to the indigo color they had previously been.

"RAAAAAH!"

I crossed my claws, making a mad dash towards Rainus. Just before he would have slashed me with the axe he had retrieved, I jumped and disappeared in a flash of light and appeared behind him, leaving a cross mark on its chest.

Silence.

All of a sudden, the Rainus shattered behind me, leaving countless polygons in its wake and signifying my victory.

I quickly deactivated my [[Unique Skill]] and unequipped my second claw just before the door reopened and a staircase revealed itself behind me.

Kirito rushed in, running up to me and hugging me tight.

"K-Ki-Bou?!"

"Thank god, you're alive! It didn't happen again… it didn't happen again…" he cried.

Once he withdrew from our embrace, I saw him wipe tears from his eyes and put on a bright smile.

_Ki-Bou…_

"So, what kind of trap was it?" he asked, brushing off his show of emotion as if it never happened.

"It was just a mini-boss, don't worry about it!"

"… All right. I'm just glad you're okay."

I blushed, not used to him being like this.

"W-well, what say we get moving? The stairs are over that way!"

"Right."

As we were walking down the stairs, the temperature fell lower and lower. I soon found myself shivering.

"Here, take this for now," Kirito said, offering me his coat.

"B-but isn't that the boss drop you got from floor one?" I stammered.

"Yeah, it is. Just hold on to it for now. You're cold, right?"

**_Acquired [Coat of Midnight]_**

"Y-yeah… thank you, Ki-Bou."

_Really… thank you._

Once we reached the end of the staircase, we found ourselves staring down an ominous double door.

"Well… let's go," Kirito said hesitantly, pushing on the door.

* * *

(Kirito)

We opened the door, only to find an angry Yamiko glaring coldly at us.

"Get out of our way, Yamiko. I don't want to hurt you," I hissed, steeling myself.

"I can't say the feeling is mutual, Kirito."

I looked at her beautiful face, now marred by hatred and anger.

"I'm sorry, Yamiko."

I drew three specialized Throwing Picks from my pouch and threw them into her arms. She failed to dodge, and collapsed from the [[Sleep]] condition that the picks inflicted.

I looked at her from above, noting that she looked completely innocent when unconscious. Her sleeping face remained unchanged by the wicked virtual world that we now lived in… she looked completely at peace.

I closed my eyes and sighed. "Let's go, Argo."

As we walked past her and into a hallway, I couldn't help but reminisce about my past with Yamiko.

_We always used to fight each other over the stupidest of things… yet somehow, we would always be able to make up and become the best of friends again… it's as if we had an unbreakable bond._

_Yamiko… what happened to you…?_

"Ki-Bou!"

I snapped out of my thoughts with a start, turning to Argo and asking, "What?"

"You were spacing out. Anyway, I think they're in here," she said, pointing to a door in front of us.

"All right…"

"Are you okay? You seem really down. Is it something with Yamiko?"

"Yeah… I knew her outside the game," I said, already feeling depressed.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We… we were the best of friends in the real world… up until I gave up kendo. Then, we just kind of grew apart. I knew she resented me for quitting, but I didn't know that she hated me this much…"

Tears threatened to escape their ocular prison.

"Ki-Bou… don't worry, I'm sure she doesn't hate you. The game must have just messed with her head. There's definitely a way to get her back to normal."

"I hope so… you know what? You're right."

I opened the door to find that Asuna and Cirdan had freed themselves of their bondage and were quietly sitting at a table, drinking what looked like green tea.

"Guys? Are you two okay?" I asked quietly.

"Kirito?"

"Kirito-kun?"

They looked over at me, and that was when I remembered all of the fights I had gotten into with them.

_"Kirito, you unbelievable asshole! Why won't you let us help you?!"_

_"Kirito-kun, you jerk! I don't ever want to see you again!"_

"Guys… I'm sorry…"

"Don't start with that! We already forgave you a while back. Besides, you _did_ save us just now, right?" Cirdan comforted me.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, perking up.

"Well then, let's go!" Cirdan and Argo shouted in unison.

As they started to leave, I stared into Asuna's eyes, pleading for forgiveness with my own.

Her eyes started to water.

_Crap!_

"BAKA!"

And with that, Asuna rushed towards me and delivered a bone-crushing hug.

"A-Asuna?!"

* * *

**A/N:**

**I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!**

**[Insert some random excuse as to why I haven't updated in so long.]**

**I am so burned out right now! I spent two whole days just trying to find inspiration to continue, and finally, after TWO MORE DAYS, I've got a chapter out!**

**Ahem. Well, anyway, I'd like to say that updates would come more frequently, but sadly, I can't do that. Stuff happens, and I've found out the hard way that it can get in the way of not only writing, but also finding the ****_inspiration_**** to write.**

**Also, I'm going to TOKYO IN TULSA August 2****nd**** through the 4****th****, and I finally earned enough money to do a KIRITO COSPLAY!**

**So yeah, if any of you are going to TnT and see a teenager cosplaying as Kirito (my badge's I.D. is Kirito as well) with a Squirtle gijinka in tow, don't hesitate to say hello!**

**Anyway, it's kinda strange that I didn't end it with a cliffhanger, isn't it? Hmm… well, whatever. Maybe next time…**

**And now it brings me so much pleasure to say:**

**I am a jelly donut! Save 15% or more on your auto insurance!**

**Nah, I'm just messin' with you. Here's the disclaimer!**

**I don't own the Sword Art Online anime, manga, or light novel series, and all of the characters I borrow from it are just that: borrowed! XD I could never do as good of a job as the big man at the desk writing those novels, so please feel free to check out his work! You can find the translated light novels at baka-tsuki! (I feel like I'm rambling now, so I'll cut it off here.)**

**And with that, I bid you ado!**


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